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But grounding is still important. There's also context to consider. Suppose I hypothesized that Trudeau was a eugenicist. I'd look to see if he was encouraging wealthier or smarter people to have children - he's not. His reforms to family spending are progressive in the sense that they help poor people more. The very definition of the word progressive in this economic sense means favoring the poor. Is Trudeau sterilizing the mentally ill? Not in any clear way. Is he banning immigration from low-IQ regions? Not at all, he's encouraging it! Thus I conclude that Trudeau is not a eugenicist.
Well, I too agree with the 'if you subsidize something you get more of it' line of argument. I agree that our treatment of mental illness isn't actually effective but I'm confident that progressives think it is, that therapy and anti-depressants or whatever is good. Anyway, there's a clear distinction between subsidizing disabilities and Aktion T4. That certainly doesn't encourage mental illness or disability!
I deny that dissident right wingers are progressive. There's a concept of progress, certainly. There's a desire for social change. But the people who dominate the word 'progressive' have a specific direction in mind. Likewise, the people who dominate the phrase 'national socialist' bring in anti-semitism automatically. You can be nationalist. You can be a socialist. Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist and a socialist for instance. But he wasn't a national socialist.
I'd create more categories. You have your atheistic progressives. You have your church-going progressives who go 'who am I to judge' about homosexuality, believe they should do more to help other races, everyone born equal. You have religious conservatives too, or secular conservatives, agnostic conservatives. But you also have religious rightists - the SS official who sees nothing wrong with cutting down Jews Commandment-wise. Or they might have some kind of alternate spiritual viewpoint, Pierce's Cosmotheism or Japanese Shinto nationalists. Or they could be atheistic. I'm sure you believe that there are such things as Christian progressives, so why not religious or irreligious rightists?
The cleaving point is internationalism vs nationalism, concepts of race and hierarchy IMO. This is how we distinguish the SS officer from the pink-haired university student. Both want major changes to modern civilization. But the former wants more nationalism, extensive racial purity laws, military dominance over other powers, sexual deviants removed from society. He might also be in favor of economic equality in the sense that we're all ____ans and so the nation will be stronger without any internal divisions or envy. But that's not the key thing. The pink-haired university student wants more internationalism, more cooperation with other countries, class war at home such that the oppressive billionaire class is crushed, everyone to breed with eachother such that race is abolished (I heard this in person once, not a strawman), sexual diversity celebrated, to avoid wars unless they're with enemy regimes that pattern-match to the above type.
They might agree on things like a national health service but for different reasons - improving the health of the nation makes it stronger, vs people having a right to health. In most areas, they're opposed.
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