The SPLC Was NEVER A "Civil Rights Stalwart" - it Was ALWAYS A "Dangerous Joke"

Some Respectable Right people have finally noticed the horrors committed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, basically because it has begun attacking mainstream Christian groups for “homophobia,” “transphobia” etc. etc. But this is invariably accompanied by pious claptrap about how the SPLC used to be OK. Nonsense. It was always a nasty racket.

Thus the Wall Street Journal recently featured an op-ed by Weekly Standard writer Jeryl Bier:

How did the SPLC become the default journalistic resource on purported hate speech, racism and extremism? Morris Dees, still the SPLC’s chief trial attorney, founded the organization in 1971 along with Joseph Levin Jr., now an emeritus board member. In its early years, the SPLC made a name for itself by winning some high-profile cases against the KKK and other white-supremacist groups. But over time its mission changed. In recent years it has focused on “tolerance education,” hate-group tracking (including an online “hate map”) and fundraising. [The Insidious Influence of the SPLC, June 21, 2017. Emphasis added]

And Politico, while conceding that the SPLC has gone overboard, called it a “Civil Rights” stalwart. [Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way?, By Ben Schreckinger, July/August 2017]...

Why would the SPLC sue an organization with total assets of $52, 000 for the sum of $7 million?

Well, (A) because it’s a tactic to invoke the power of the State to suppress an organization dedicated to Wrongthink; and (B) because the SPLC can use it for fundraising. (SPLC FY 2016 Revenues $51.8 million, Endowment $319.3 million)

The mother of Michael Donald got the $52, 000., which she used to buy a house—Morris Dees gets the rest of the money, and has a much bigger house...

VDARE.com’s Patrick Cleburne has done a series of reports on the SPLC’s remarkable finances. He was somewhat startled by their “Endowment Fund”, writing

Contemplating the “Endowment Fund” reveals a great deal about the motives and outlook of the $PLC`s management.

In brief, they appear obsessed with manipulating money to make money. This is particularly in view of recent changes evident in the 2009 reports. The structure of the portfolio looks like it could belong to a retired Goldman Sachs Partner, or possibly a very aggressive Family Office managing the fortune of an ultra-rich clan. There can be very few legal charities with this extraordinary appearance.

In the New York Times in 1996, an interviewer described the SPLC tactics this way:

Mr. Dees and his colleagues have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets.

[Conversations/Morris Dees;A Son of Alabama Takes On Americans Who Live to Hate By Kevin Sack, NYT, May 12, 1996]

But John Derbyshire described the same phenomenon differently in National Review Online (!) in 2000:

Another instance showed up last week in Idaho, when the leader of the Aryan Nations white-supremacist group was ordered to pay $5.1 million in punitive and compensatory damages to two people who were run off the road and shot at by guards outside the AN compound. The guards, who had mistaken the plaintiffs’ truck backfire for a gunshot, are currently serving stiff prison sentences for the assault (in which nobody was seriously hurt — this is one of those million-dollars-per-bruise judgments). The civil lawsuit was brought on the plaintiff’s behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left activist group, explicitly as a means of destroying Aryan Nations. Now, the AN folk are a bunch of yahoos; but when they break the law, the law can deal with them, as is proved by the incarceration of the guards in this case. To bring a civil action with the expressed aim of bankrupting AN is an act of plain malice, and ought not be countenanced by a court system committed to our ancient liberties.

[ First Thing We Do … National Review Online, September 12, 2000]...

It’s part of what, in the form of hate crime prosecutions, Nicholas Stix called Washington’s War Against White Working Class Dissent....

... as John Derbyshire said, if an organization like the SPLC can go around doing these suits out of “plain malice” then they are a threat to “our ancient liberties.”

So remember, the SPLC was never a “Civil Rights Stalwart.” It was always “a dangerous joke”...

Related

12 Ways The Southern Poverty Law Center Is A Scam To Profit From Hate-Mongering, by Stella Morabito, The Federalist, May 18, 2017.

IRLI Releases Obama Justice Department Reprimand of the Southern Poverty Law Center over its “Derogatory” Tactics, “Frivolous Behavior”, IRLI, May 8, 2017:

Today, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) announces the first-time release of an official letter of reprimand signed by the Obama-era Justice Department (DOJ) against the controversial tax-exempt “hate-watch” organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) (letter found here). In the letter, DOJ states that the SPLC attorney violated professional ethics, among other things, by making personal and baseless attacks against IRLI, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and their staff during official immigration court proceedings...

Although the SPLC’s utter lack of ethics was thoroughly condemned by the DOJ, the agency inexplicably requested that FAIR keep their conclusions confidential. FAIR and IRLI have complied with the request for more than a year; however, in that time, the SPLC has continued and escalated its attacks on both FAIR and IRLI, likely in part in retaliation for FAIR and IRLI filing a complaint with DOJ regarding its conduct. At this time, IRLI has decided it must release the letter to defend itself and protect its charitable purposes...

Comprehensive research, articles, and references on the SPLC - Southern Poverty Law Center hate group, CAIRCO

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The SPLC Was NEVER A "Civil Rights Stalwart" - it Was ALWAYS A "Dangerous Joke"