By William A. Jacobson
Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
November 23, 2010
I cannot begin to tell you how much it sickens me that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group I supported many years ago because of its work against the Klan, has become a key player in labeling legitimate conservative political and religious groups as "hate groups."
I have documented how SPLC exaggerated the number and extent of "hate" groups, including counting two Klan groups in my home state of Rhode Island which simply don't exist; how SPLC falsely labeled a black conservative law professor "an apologist for white supremacists"; how the SPLC falsely accused a history professor of being on the payroll of Turkey because the professor's research questioned whether the killings of Armenians constituted "genocide"; and how SPLC falsely claimed that a speech by Sarah Palin at the first National Tea Party Convention was one of the landmark events in the "patriot movement" (which SPLC defines to mean Tim McVeigh-types).
Time and again SPLC, through its Hatewatch division, seeks to shut down debate by applying the "hate group" or similar epithets to political opponents, and those political opponents almost always are conservative.
Being labeled a "hate group" by SPLC can be devastating, because most of the country is unaware of how politicized SPLC has become. Until I started blogging a little over two years ago, I too was working off of SPLC's prior reputation of fighting real hate groups, like the Klan.
SPLC is at it again, with a list of 18, "anti-gay" groups, 13 of whom also will make SPLC's upcoming "hate group" list. Here is SPLC's explanation for how one gets on this list (emphasis mine):
I have documented how SPLC exaggerated the number and extent of "hate" groups, including counting two Klan groups in my home state of Rhode Island which simply don't exist; how SPLC falsely labeled a black conservative law professor "an apologist for white supremacists"; how the SPLC falsely accused a history professor of being on the payroll of Turkey because the professor's research questioned whether the killings of Armenians constituted "genocide"; and how SPLC falsely claimed that a speech by Sarah Palin at the first National Tea Party Convention was one of the landmark events in the "patriot movement" (which SPLC defines to mean Tim McVeigh-types).
Time and again SPLC, through its Hatewatch division, seeks to shut down debate by applying the "hate group" or similar epithets to political opponents, and those political opponents almost always are conservative.
Being labeled a "hate group" by SPLC can be devastating, because most of the country is unaware of how politicized SPLC has become. Until I started blogging a little over two years ago, I too was working off of SPLC's prior reputation of fighting real hate groups, like the Klan.
SPLC is at it again, with a list of 18, "anti-gay" groups, 13 of whom also will make SPLC's upcoming "hate group" list. Here is SPLC's explanation for how one gets on this list (emphasis mine):
Oh!...that's great helpful, it's so right to me! Million thanks for the article,
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