The Atlantic Wire fell for the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center's claim that there has been a rise in the number of hate groups. The expansion in the number of hate groups, it turns out, is entirely a function of the expansion of the definition of what the group considers a "hate group."
What is a hate group to the Southern Poverty Law Center? Any group that disagrees with its left wing political beliefs, and it now includes any group that disagrees with the political agenda of gay rights groups.
The number of hate groups is not growing. The only thing that is growing is Southern Poverty Law Center's overactive ideological imagination.
The pejorative labeling the group is engaging in is almost enough to put it in the category of left wing hate groups.
11 comments:
Martin,
Its hard to see how groups opposed to civil rights for homosexuals aren't hate groups. Any group that exists for the purpose of oppressing others almost by definition has to be a hate group.
P.S.
Your position doesn't seem to be supported by the facts. On the SPLC website, it identified only 17 anti-gay hate groups. The overwhelming majority of hate groups are racist. All of the hate groups the SPLC identified in Ky. are racist, including two black separatist groups.
1. There is no legal definition for “hate group,” which is why even the FBI does not track “hate groups.”
2. The SPLC uses the deliberately meaningless term “hate groups” in its fund-raising propaganda precisely because it allows them to denigrate their perceived opponents without accusing them of any actual crimes.
3. The “Hate Map” is a fund-raising tool, nothing more. It provides no information whatsoever on the alleged groups, in fact, the SPLC didn’t even bother to make up locations for 262 of the groups; that’s 26% of the total.
In many states the percentage of phantom "groups" runs as high as 80-100%. Many of the alleged “groups” are listed twice in the same location.
4. Since the SPLC is the sole arbiter of the meaningless “hate groups” label, AND because SPLC fund-raising is directly tied to creating the illusion of an ever-increasing threat, it is in their direct financial interest to raise the numbers each year.
Last year the SPLC took in $31 million donor-dollars in donations and earned $26 million in interest on its bloated “Endowment Fund.” That’s $57 million dollars for last year alone. Since 2003, the SPLC has taken in more than a third of a BILLION dollars in tax-free cash, and yet the number of “hate groups” always goes up.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-82
5. The most ironic (read: "hypocritical") thing about the Southern Poverty Law Center is that NOT ONE of its top ten, highest paid executives is a minority.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-7m
In fact, according to the SPLC's hometown newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, despite being located LITERALLY in the back yard of Dr. Martin Luther King's home church, the SPLC has NEVER hired a person of color to a highly paid position of power in its entire 40 year history.
Some "experts"
Richard,
Considering the way right-wing groups raise boatloads of money by sending out hysterical letters about imaginary threats, you are throwing stones from a glass house. Fear and hatred of gays, muslims and Mexicans is being pimped by the Right at ever-increasing levels.
KyCobb,
How do you define "hatred"? Does it it include principled political disagreement with someone else?
Martin,
It depends on what the principle is. if a group's principle is that the state should deny civil rights to people solely because of the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, or their sexual orientation, then I would consider that a hate group.
What civil right is, say, the Family Research Council denying?
Martin,
I haven't read the FRC's political platform, nor was I aware that it had been labeled a hate group.
In fact, by the SPLC's stated criteria most Protestant churches, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican Churches, and the Catholic Church are hate groups.
Do you think these groups are hate groups?
Martin,
Can you provide a link where the SPLC has identified those churches as hate groups?
Martin,
You should probably do more research before stating who qualifies as a hate group under SPLC criteria. Its website states, "Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups."
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