I posted a really long, elaborate version of this earlier with a lot of examples but I'm trimming this down.
Dark side and Light side are two varying opinions. Neither side are based on facts, it's just an interpretation as to how they view the world personally.
Dark Siders focus on emotions. Not necessarily just the bad ones. The most notable Sith in the history of Star Wars are evil and corrupt individuals who are bent on revenge and/or personal ambition. Some Sith are notably pacifists. But just because they use their power for their own personal gain doesn't make them wrong.
Light Siders focus on dogma. Refined knowledge. They do things for the good of everyone. But back during the great schism between the Jedi and the Sith, the Jedi commited unspeakable acts of genocide because their Sith counterparts refused to bend to their beliefs. The Jedi have also at various times in history shown a tendency to control, as the Reublic at various times has functioned as a theocracy due to the Jedi being involved in government affairs and being so closely knit with the Republic. There are a lot of corrupt Jedi in history who never really were fully affiliated with Sith, some of them regarded as Dark Jedi.
Palpatine (Darth Sidious) was corrupt. Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) was also corrupt.
Darth Plagueis was a pacifist and was a master of alchemy. He used his abilities in the Dark Side of the force accumulate his power and as it grew gain the power to create life from nothing but midi-chlorians (the debated origin of Anakin Skywalker). Darth Sidious killed Darth Plagueis out of fear that the being that he created would usurp him from the position of being the favored and replace him as Plagueis' apprentice.
Darth Bane was a Sith chivalrist and the source of the "Rule of Two" which was established because of the fact that the Sith as a whole had become too destructive to exist in the numbers that it did. Hence eventually he did away with all Sith but himself and his apprentice. As that line progressed, apprentice would kill master and usurp the title only to be killed by someone stronger. This is an example of Darwinism. Eventually down the line, the Sith Lords became more and more powerful.
I think that the Dark Side of the Force exists the keep the Light Side in check. For instance, at the height of the Republic before its collapse the Jedi were heavily involved with their affairs. They were Generals in their military. They made a lot of decisions on behalf of the Senate. Whether good or evil, pure or corrupt I think that there is a cycle in the universe when it comes to control and either faction of Force adepts.
Despite how evil Emperor Palpatine was, the Empire flourished during his tenure in ways and to an extreme that they never had before under the Republic. The economy improved and military was strengthened in an attempt to keep chaos from overrunning the galaxy (under instigation from the Rebel Alliance who were perceived as a threat to the well-being of the Galactic Empire). So Palpatine's rise to power wasn't completely fueled by his hunger for absolute power, but to establish control in a form that he felt the government lacked. Aquiring Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice futher secured his position at the head of the government.
In history, both the Sith and the Jedi have committed atrocities. You can relate the genocide of the Sith to the Crusades. And you can relate the execution of the Jedi and Palpatine's rise to power to Josef Stalin's rise to power in Russia. There are a lot of things that you can draw comparisons to in the Star Wars universe. But none of them clearly define each side as being good or evil.
Compare and contrast these:
Sith Code
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Jedi Code
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
Basic fundamentals... no sense of good or evil.
So yeah... neither Sith or Jedi are good or evil as a faction. Good or evil is based on the individual. I'm sure that just as there are Sith who are considered corrupt and evil there are Jedi who are the same. This can be omitted at times being that the stories are generally told from only one side of the fence (and are therefore biased).
One thing I have to note though is that when Luke Skywalker reforms the Jedi after the death of the Emperor he embraces more of the passionate side of the Force which was before considered part of the Dark Side because it led to the "fear of loss" as Yoda had said.
Love is essential in becoming a part of the Force as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker had become. It was because of their love that they were to exist on the plane that they did, guiding Luke Skywalker and showing him the ways to righteousness (Qui-Gon Jinn did play a behind the scenes role in influencing Luke Skywalker).
(Figuratively the Sith represent evolution and progressivism. The Jedi represent conservatism.)
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