Southern Poverty Law Center / Deacon

[JoshuaIsLord]

I am curious as to everyone’s opinion of the this Entity. Our Deacon retired from it in 2014. I finally found his profile on LinkedIn. He worked as an Investigator for them since 1976.

 

[neophyte]

Highly disreputable.

 

[phil19034]

While they were once a good group battling the KKK, they have become a far left group who classifies any one who advocates for traditional family values as a hate group.

 

[phil19034]

I also disagree with the way they create and use their “hate map,” which is no longer limited to real hate groups.

What they did to Jennifer Roback Morse and the Ruth Institute is wrong.

The fact that the SPLC acts as judge, jury, and executioner is wrong.

There are many companies, groups, and people who will shun anyone on their hate map, and now they are starting to use it for pro family and pro life groups, like they did with the Ruth Institute.

 

[po18guy]

In the beginning, it was a left-wing organization. But it has changed.

Now, it is a radical, ‘foaming at the mouth’ left-wing organization.

Oh, it has its defenders - probably some here.

But, so does the devil.

 

[anikins]

A very important and successful group of individuals who are fighting to expose and punish white supremacist groups, hate groups and other extremist organizations.

 

[phil19034]

A very important and successful group of individuals who are fighting to expose and punish white supremacist groups, hate groups and other extremist organizations.

Tell that to the ligitmate Catholic groups that they have labeled as hate groups.

 

[commenter]

The SPLC is a product of the Media Age. Nowadays being “convicted” by public accusation is far more damaging than courtroom convictions.

There actually are hate groups in America; no doubt about it. And the SPLC has, accurately, labelled some on the far left and far right. But they also label moderately conservative groups as Hate Groups, and never label any kind of liberal groups that way. So any credibility they might have had years ago is now lost, because you don’t know if a given label means they are an extremist hate group, or just conservatives doing things the liberals don’t like.

Like the ACLU, it used to be somewhat non partisan, and somewhat objective, and - maybe - somewhat useful, but not now. Now it’s just slander.

 

[Entwhistler]

The SPLC? Sheesh.

When you classify Ben Carson, The American Family Association, the Catholic Newspaper the Remnent, you’ve got problems.

You might not agree with Carson, the American Family Association or the Remnent but to call them hate groups?

 

[Augustinian]

I am curious as to everyone’s opinion of the this Entity.

Their definition of a “hate group” is someone that they hate, even if it isn’t a group.

They’ve included restaurants on their hate list, 'organizations" with fewer than 2 confirmed members.

I don’t see where the SPLC is considered to be authoritative, Its just a handful of radicals holed up in a southern metropolis pontificating against what they hate.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I am curious as to everyone’s opinion of the this Entity.

I used to have a lot of respect for the SPLC and its founder, Morris Dees. One of my friends worked there for a while. I thought they were doing good work.

However, in recent years I mostly hear about them in connection with their “hate map” which is a map of all the “hate groups” in the USA so you can see which “hate groups” are operating in your area. They regularly release articles about how some huge number of “hate groups” are operating, like “ooo you should be so scared of this and send us your donations”. They would call it “raising awareness” and I would call it “keeping yourself in the public eye to get money”. I would also call it “ridiculous overstatement detracting from the SPLC’s credibility.”

The dozens of groups they tend to label as “hate groups”, at least in the areas where I spend time, tend to be either (a) groups that nobody except the handful of people in the group have ever heard of, or (b) religious groups such as Nation of Islam that have expressed some kind of racial or ethnic bias in their public statements. Most of these groups are not actually out there committing or sponsoring actual hate crimes. If it’s just a matter of a group getting together to talk about “politically incorrect” viewpoints, I may not like it, but they’re free to do it. Some of the additions to their list are on there because, in the course of their normal business (let’s say releasing independent records) they had some association with one or two people who are regarded as neo-Nazis. So the whole organization gets branded a “hate group” by association with one or two people. It’s ridiculous.

I would prefer that the SPLC spend its time and money on the subset of cases and groups where the group is actually committing or sponsoring crimes, and not just trying to come up with a dramatically huge number of “hate groups”. Tell me the groups of most concern, have a “top 20” or something. SPLC from a practical standpoint cannot be monitoring dozens of groups in any meaningful way, and this sort of list-making quickly gets into Pepe the Frog territory.

 

[Maximilian75]

yet another mouthpiece for the continual offense of the American far left.

 

[MonteRCMS]

Seouthern Poverty Law Center is a scam.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Ayaan Hirsi Ali — who grew up Muslim in Somalia and suffered female genital mutilation — as an “anti-Muslim extremist.” Just because she now speaks out against radical Islam.

They also list the conservative Family Research Council as a “hate group.”

That listing led a man to go to the Council’s office to try to gun down their workers. The shooter later told law enforcement that he picked the group because he saw they were on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map and he wanted to fight bigots.

Stossel disagrees with the Family Research Council on many issues. But he says they don’t deserve to be called haters. The group’s Executive Vice President, Jerry Boykin, tells him: “I don’t hate gay people, and I know gay people, and I have worked with gay people.”

Another group that the Southern Poverty Law Center smears is the Ruth Institute. The group argues that gays shouldn’t have the same rights to adopt. But does that make them haters? No, says founder Jennifer Morse: “I have no problem with gay people. That’s not the issue.”

Other reporters, such as Megyn McArdle at Bloomberg, have also pointed out that the group is an odd fit for a “hate” list.

There are many non-hateful groups on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate list. But Antifa, which clearly is a hate group, is not on the list.

The Southern Poverty Law Center wouldn’t talk to Stossel about their listings. Stossel says screaming “hate!” brings in money.

Morris Dees, the Center’s founder, pays himself nearly half a million dollars a year. Although Dees once promised that when the Center’s endowment reached $50 million, he’d stop fundraising, he didn’t stop. Now the Center has $320 million dollars stashed away – much of it in the Cayman Islands. It’s all in their tax returns.

Stossel notes that they still con people into giving them even more money. Apple gave them $1 million last year.

He says the Southern Poverty Law Center has become a hate group itself. It is now a left-wing, money grabbing, slander machine.

 

[MonteRCMS]

Google YouTube SPLC

Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group with a HUGE budget. It has 1/3 of a BILLION in cash in the bank.