The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been laying low for the last few years after a horrific series of scandals involving the founder, Morris Dees. Dees was apparently something of a tyrant, and allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination roiled the organization. The irony of a group purporting to be at war with “racist” groups being accused of racism was lost on the left as the cone of silence descended over the story.
The infamous SPLC ‘Hate Map” showing where all the groups they claim are “hate groups” are headquartered was a little late this year. The Center for Immigration Studies was still there, along with other conservative groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, Center for Security Policy, and Family Research Council. ADF’s “hate crime” was in defending businesses that exercise religious freedom by not using their talents to help gay couples get married.
Needless to say, there isn’t much “hate” coming from these groups — except perhaps for the SPLC and their efforts to fundraise off their exaggerated war on “hate.”
So with a need for more targets to fundraise against, the SPLC decided to go after moms. The group Moms For Liberty and other parental rights groups have been put on the SPLC’s “hate group” list. If you wish for a more tangible way to express your gratitude to SPLC for their fine work in defending America from “ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night,” you may donate here.
“These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the SPLC report says. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”
“At the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group with vast connections to the GOP that this year the SPLC designated as an extremist group,” the report notes. “They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, ‘We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.’”
Omigod SPLC. Save us! We’re not worthy!
🚨BREAKING: The Southern Poverty Law Center has added parental rights groups, including @Moms4Liberty, @DefendingEd, @RightsParents, and many more to its hate map, which plots conservative groups alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.🚨https://t.co/MwfhfpCWmn
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 6, 2023
The SPLC report does not once mention the Left’s aggressive promotion of sexualized material for children in schools and at other venues. It does not mention the “Drag Queen Story Hour” movement or the fact that many of the books which parents demand removed from school libraries include pornographic content. It does not mention how many on the Left champion the idea that children should be able to identify with a gender opposite their biological sex, hide that identity from their parents, and even obtain life-altering drugs without parental consent. Instead, it acts as though the parental rights movement emerged in a vacuum, or worse, is motivated by hatred.
“Hate and antigovernment groups make up the extreme edge of America’s hard right, an inherently antidemocratic movement that rejects pluralism and equity,” the SPLC report states. “The movement instead strives to build a society dominated by hierarchy, where people whom far rightists deem lesser or threatening—women, Black and Brown people, LGBTQ people, non-Christians and others—are socially and politically subjugated”
Is anyone dumb enough to believe that? To place Moms For Liberty in the same class as the Klu Klux Klan is laughably absurd, as former PJ Media editor Tyler O’Neil points out.
Do you think parents should have a say in their children’s education or that books with explicit sexual images should be removed from school libraries? If so, you represent a threat to civil rights tracing back to the “Uptown Klans," SPLC researcher says. https://t.co/y4kNTMC1jk
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) April 20, 2023
Related: Corrupt Bedfellows: SPLC and FBI Working Together to Frame Catholics as Terrorists
SPLC has seen, for the first time, a defamation lawsuit against it reach the discovery stage. They picked on a small immigration organization, declaring the Dustin Inman Society a hate group. But the SPLC was sloppy, and a judge ruled the suit could continue through discovery. As Mark Krikorian points out, this is a huge deal.
No one has ever gotten a look at SPLC’s internal machinations, and staff communications and other files regarding the plaintiffs could well turn over rocks that SPLC would prefer to keep in place.
But discovery can be expensive — masses of emails and other documents to go through, opposing counsel obstructing at every turn — I shudder to think of the cost.
The SPLC has lost a lot of credibility. But they remain a radical left icon and will continue to use exaggeration and hysteria to drum up funds for their efforts.
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