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I think you can blame Star Trek for that view. TNG often showed families about the Enterprise whereas the original TV show was strictly 'military' in function. I'm old enough to have seen the OG Star Wars in theater, the Death Star was purely military. Anyone that died on it was a soldier.

A slight older real world conflict that people are forgetting was the Irish Republican Army vs the British Army. Lots of bombings that killed civilians by the IRA. The Brits tried to not kill civilians, and they mostly succeeded. But they were still often viewed as the baddies.

Revolutionaries are very often a morally dark group. They are often willing to go above and beyond to justify killing to achieve their goals. But historically sometimes, it appears to a necessary thing to do so.

Edited for extra words - drink more tea before typing I guess