Disclaimer, I'm far to the left personally. With that in mind:

One definition is that on the left, everyone should be able to be however they want to be, and you shouldn't infringe people's freedom by telling them they have to be this way or that way, if that's not in their nature. On the right, there's a right way to live and a wrong way to live, and it's okay if the people who are "in the right" and hold some natural authority as a result are telling the people who don't have their act together (financially, life-organization-wise, sexually, whatever) what's what.

I won't say one is right and another is wrong; they apply well or badly in different contexts. Academia tends to be left-wing. Militaries tend to be right-wing. It's generally good to be on the left if you're trying to understand the world and figure things out without a preconceived notion of what the right and wrong answers are. It's generally good to be on the right if you need action, strength of character, ability to defeat your enemies or defend yourself without getting extensively hung up in second-guessing.

This doesn't apply very well to the modern US political landscape, which is pretty far afield of the traditional definitions of left and right, but that's a separate topic.

Let the hate-responses commence 😃