I'll say it again, one of the worst and most damaging ideas in the modern political/media landscape is the idea that all opinions deserve equal treatment, or that both sides of an argument are always valid.

Ignorance is not as valid or worthy of respect as expertise.

Stupidity is not as valid or worthy of respect as intelligence.

Misinformation is not as valid or worthy of respect as verifiable fact.

Which is worse: to send an innocent man to prison or to let a guilty man go free?

Making a non-sequitur that doesn't say anything at all.

And to answer your question: Both are equally horrible.

Sending the innocent to prison is by far the worse of those two, imo.

Anyways, how did the conversation get to here? from Trump + crew, lieing about elections (spreading mis-information) and right wing news sites, not bothering to fact check or correct these lies.... to this?

Its not that all opinions deserve equal treatment, instead the ideal to ignore an opinion that differs from yours is what causes issues and conflict.  What I mean by this is that in order to truly understand why someone has a particular perspective and opinion you have to hear them out no matter how off the wall that opinion may appear to you.

A lot of times you might not even know you are letting your own bias speak instead of actually speaking on facts.  We have seen in multiple instances where 2 people can view the same event and come away with 2 totally different perspective.  Which perspective is the correct view of that event usually lies with which person can articulate what they saw better.  Having a wife and kids really bring this home especially since my wife and I are totally opposite.  We do not think the same way most of the time which always have us arguing over different things and situations.

The Ideal that you can say, I am right and you are wrong, here is all the data that support my position doesn't really cut it because they will just find data that support their opinion and you will be arguing who's data is correct.  Instead, if you know why they believe something or view an event a particular way, you could find information that they will accept or show a particular point to lead them into finding the right answer themselves.  The thing is, you really have to know if you are right and not being lead by your own bias and opinion instead of facts.

When you know you don't have a leg to stand on, that your point is indefensible, you divert the conversation to something else. That's what happened here.

That viewpoint is way too idealistic. It is not viable to check every single personal thought against biases. You can also not always lower yourself to other people's viewpoint, especially since they will never do the same. At some point ignorance will become dangerous and then the gloves need to come off.

If there is one side who mostly bases their opinion on facts and one side who mostly uses lies then it is prudent to give the benefit to the former and ignore the latter. Doesn't matter if the liars sometimes tell the truth or that the good people sometimes lie or err. It's not upon us to sift through their garbage in hope to find some kind justification for people's horrible actions, especially when they won't put in the effort.

Ignorant people who refuse to acknowledge facts after you present it to them can't be reasoned with, so the only thing left is to shout them down immediately. Because if you don't they will feel justified in their beliefs. It's how the US or any other fundamentalist country got as bad as they are. They do not deserve respect, some don't even deserve tolerance. Tolerance is how dangerous cults grow.

In his presidency, Trump made 30,529 false or misleading statements. Donald Trump's philosophy to governing will be carved into his tombstone, "Here LIES Donald Trump"

Just watched a great speech from president Joe Biden. I have hope for the future. Finger cross that consequent action against climates changes that were promised are follow through in the near future

He came with mittens and an envelope, he was on the way to the postal office