"equate" - state equality of; treat as equivalent.

Picking out some common factor between different things is not the same as "equating" them.
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The heartening thing about this week's episode, and the response to it, is that it's made it a little bit harder for the control freaks and bullies to maintain and extend their stranglehold on political dissent.   This eruption of disapproval that forced Tonty Blair to dicover that he actually has got a reverse gear, has impeded the slide down that slippery slope. If it had been shrugged off as inconsequential, that would have been a green light for the thuggish tendency in party poitics.