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Comment by knowaveragejoe | Hacker News Reader

Nobody suggesting that "both sides are the same" has a shred of intellectual honesty.

Declarative moral statements like this are so vacuous. Of course there are intellectually honest people who believe both parties are the same. They may be evaluating or prioritizing the evidence differently, but that doesn't make one side or the other 'dishonest'. Casually impuning the morality of an entire swath of people is rhetoric that drives division and strife, not progress.

For example, yes Bidens FTC is a standout actor, but 'both sides' just voted to perpetuate overseas wars with more American tax dollars. In terms of the American war machine, it's 100% accurate to say both sides are the same.

Then I suppose the appropriate way to phrase this would be "people suggesting both sides are the same need to qualify their statements."

You're making the assumption that they haven't, at length, until people got uncomfortable and wanted to leave.

The scenario you’re proposing sounds like one person lecturing another and not listening to any counter points… wanting to leave feels like a natural reaction.

Sounds like you are making the case that "both sides are aligned in some rare cases". not that "they are the same".

No, and that reading is the exact dogmatic dipolism I'm talking about avoiding. Both sides are human, both sides are American, both sides of political spectrum are represented by the wealth elite. There are millions of common denominators between both sides, and a relatively miniscule number of differences. Most of the differences themselves are exaggerated by the political class, to show division and strengthen in-group ties. Believing one side or the other is morally superior is meaningless- the other side is always going to believe the same thing about you, with just as much supporting evidence.

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