"Freedom"
CA governor Newsom is going about heckling right wing states' policies these days. For example, he says Florida government is fascistic because DeSantis enacted a law to prohibit child body mutilation in service of transgender ideology. Newsom claims California gives people the freedom to receive "gender affirming" treatments without the government getting in the way. DeSantis, for his part, says CA is fascistic because it takes parents' rights away when it comes to deciding on "transitioning" their child. He claims Florida gives parents the freedom to make that decision. I will leave it to more knowledgeable people to define "freedom" and "fascism" precisely, but the way these words seem to be used is this: if the state lets you do what you want to do, then the state is giving you freedom; if the state doesn't let you do what you want to do, then the state is fascistic. And because the left and the right want different things, they will never agree on what fascism and freedom mean.
The term "fascism" seems to be misused a lot by libs and misused in more ways. Libs seem to mean "authoritative" or "forceful" when they say "fascistic." It's like when kids call their parents fascists. Or, when young libs call cops fascists. By this definition, every law is fascistic - they are all implemented by force. You are not free to agree to disagree with a law. You either obey the law or you get punished. And cops *have* to use force when needed. It's part of their job description. Actually, not using force when force is warranted is punishable for a cop. Substitution of cops with social workers in Dem cities seems to be a symptom of libs hating force. (This kind of thinking is more common in young libs, but Dem leaders play up to this audience!)
What about "parental rights"? Right wingers seem to have special reverence for this term, especially when they speak of it generally rather than about a specific parental right. But is it good to always let parental rights override the government? What if the parents are dumb libs trying to groom their kid into transgender ideology? Can the state interfere then? To abuse a couple of terms that are usually used in other contexts, parental rights are a "mechanism" - they are not "policy". Mechanisms are not good or bad. Those adjectives only apply to policy. Instead of talking about parental rights and state intervention, people should talk about how society should protect kids. The left and the right won't agree on a solution, but this is the thing they should be arguing about, not parental rights vs state authority.