Then criticizing those things would be legitimate. To disagree that there’s legitimate criticism regarding those issues is to condone them.

If what you meant by "legitimate criticisms" was to say that criticism of these policies themselves is legitimate, that's an extremely confusing way to say it given the context (both previous comments and the first part of your own comment), it very much sounds like you were saying something entirely different. I don't think it's fair to assume that someone objecting to your statement is objecting to that meaning of it.

Please allow me to clarify my perspective on this discussion.

This commenter associated a bunch of effects with the progressive era.

You then replied with a thoughtful response that questioned most of their points.

But then you wrote

Japanese Internment

Two major Red Scares and a collapse in union membership

Legitimate criticisms.

At this point, I read that as you acknowledging those two points as legitimate criticisms against the progressive era. This is what I disputed. I think those are unfair criticisms, as far as I understood the words you wrote.

This is all I said. I've jumped to no other conclusions. I've said nothing against you or your character. I've made no other assumptions. I simply wrote a response based off the words you used.

I see you've further clarified your perspective as well, and understand that we're of the same perspective on the matter. You have no need to be so defensive anymore, my dude.

Edit: the other commenter essentially proved that they were just baiting people into inflammatory discussion. They kept resorting to personal attacks and flip-flopped on their position solely to continue arguing. This behavior is not tolerated here. Please report such trolls in the future.