When my few liberal friends and a couple in the extended family bring up issues which shoehorn nicely in the larger subject, I start by removing the Left-Right model. I replace it with the "big and powerful" versus the "small and far less powerful." When they agree, as some have, it becomes simple to gather the Mao, Stalin and Hitler murderous regimes alongside Pol Pot and so many others.
The comes the interesting challenge. List the "small and far less powerful" after having parsed away the murderers and psychopaths. It becomes very difficult when one thinks this through only a short while, and then queries which direction governments are heading. Towards the big and powerful? Away from....?
That's been my wee strategy in debates and discussions. It works and often flummoxes the closet "big and powerful" believers, as the mask is removed.
Best wishes.
I gave up the “Left<>Right” model some years ago, as I believe the “Total Control<>Anarchy” model is a more accurate and descriptive one.
It bunches Communism and Fascism at one end (Total Control, which is undesirable) and puts Anarchy (total lack of control or protection at the other)
The optimal solution is somewhere on the continuum between those two, which I think is consistent with our current form of big “C” Conservatism. Where, exactly, is still contentious with the Libertarians tending towards the side of Anarchy, and the Leftists tending towards total control.
That is an interesting “Challenge” you pose. I’m going to think on that.