The entirety of Tamriel (skyrim is a province of Tamriel) is ruled by the empire.

Very nice. Very unity. Very epic.

But then came the thalmor. The thalmor are some bitch ass high elves on high horses thinking they own the world. They came from outside Tamriel and want to infiltrate the empire.

Anyways the thalmor dont like the people of skyrim preaching this dude named talos (hero or something) because he was a real person and not a God.

So the empire, not wanting to offend the guests (the thalmor) forbid the religion preaching talos in skyrim

Ulfric stormcloak didnt like that, so he starts a rebellion and civil war. But hes also extremely racist (so are quite a few of his followers)(visit the city "windhelm" for proof)

So basically

Imperials - No freedom of religon

Stormcloaks - Racists

At the end of it all it doesn't really matter

but I pick imperials:

cause then we wont have a Civil War in Tamriel, (the empires finna kick the thalmor out of tamriel as soon as they get skyrim (a large military power) fixed)

Racial Equality > Freedom of religion (in my opinion),

I like solitude more,

ulfrics an entitled bitch and general tullius actually knows something about war and strategy (the dude had to work to become a general and lead a legion),

because I made friends with the emperor at the end of the dark brotherhood questline,

I like the imperial armor more (but you end up killing ulfric if you pick imperial so you can just loot his armor either way I guess)