It’s well known that the Southern Poverty Law Center attacks honorable citizens and ruins reputations for profit. Even some fellow travelers on the left now look askance at the unwarranted assaults, where piles of money are garnered by bogus accusations against innocent citizens. Lefty publication Politico penned a lengthy criticism last summer titled, “Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way?” One theme was the great wealth accumulated by the “nonprofit” with Poverty in its name — a $200 million endowment considered large for the org’s operating costs and non-poverty salaries, e.g. Morris Dees’$337,000 in 2015.

Elsewhere, in 2017 the Washington Free Beacon examined the Southern Pov’s 2015 tax filings, revealing more than $50 million in contributions and $328 million in net assets. A September 2017 article in TheWeekly Standard headlined “Southern Poverty Law Center has $69 million parked overseas.” So perhaps the “Poverty” part of the title should be replaced by “Prosperity” or maybe “Shakedown” because they are doing well by being evil.

Clearly the SPLC is swimming in cash, but what does it do with all those millions, besides paying top dollar to its leaders and cranking out agitprop in its deluxe office, aka the Poverty Palace, in Montgomery, Alabama?

The group produces content and reports aimed at a certain media market segment that is eager to get anything that pillories President Trump and conservative leaders. Far left bastions like CNN and the Washington Post are happy to receive authoritatively presented trash talk suitable for easy regurgitation. In short, the SPLC is an important cog in the Fake News Industrial Complex.

The SPLC mouthpieces say they are fighting against Hate — but what is hate other than an emotional response to an objectionable behavior or belief? Just a thought, but what is the proper reaction to learning, for example, that the jihadist invasion via illegal immigration of Europe has profoundly endangered European women? Actual women fear to travel the streets of their own cities because of the real threat to their safety. Over a thousand German women were sexually assaulted by Muslim foreigners during a 2015 Cologne New Year’s celebration.

Hate may not be the most noble emotion of our species but it is certainly one of the most common. The Southern Pov’s total focus on Hate is oddly unrealistic about human nature. Instead of creating falsified HateWatch maps and enemies lists, the group would do better to condemn criminal acts rather than alleged human feelings that may not even exist. Of course, the SPLC would have far fewer targets if it limited its criticisms to behavior.

But Hate is a handy accusation precisely because it is so squishy. Almost any negative or non-PC remark can be construed as a mean-spirited expression of badthink.

The SPLC has attacked anyone who supports borders and sovereignty, claiming racism on the part of patriots. Curiously, no one challenges the implicitly racist belief of liberals that diverse foreigners — from Mexicans to Muslims — must be rescued by immigration to a majority white nation founded by Protestants. Talk about low expectations. Why couldn’t wealthy Mexico reform itself to better serve its people? Even parts of the Islamic world have embraced first world values of freedom and equality to their benefit: see my 2005 Social Contract book review of Georgie Anne Geyer’s Tunisia — A Journey through a Country that Works.

Unfortunately, the SPLC has descended even lower than bashing patriots for profit: in recent years it has expanded to supporting the enemies of America and Western Civilization, the Islamic jihadists. Apparently the management imagines a liberal fantasy world of universal peace where America has no enemies. But that pipe dream is nothing like reality on Planet Earth.

As Muslim reformer Zuhdi Jasser observed during a February interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), “The SPLC ends up becoming a tool of the theocrats — like the Saudis and others who you think they’d disagree with — but they don’t care about what they’re facilitating globally, which is global jihad of the Islamic Republic of Iran or Saudi Arabia. . . They are basically doing the work to stifle and marginalize the authenticity of the voices of Muslim reform.”

Keep in mind that it’s more accurate to think of Islam as a holistic political system rather than just as a religion. Its goal is to rule the world according to authoritarian sharia law that rejects the principle of citizens living under an agreed-upon system of laws. One indication of the inherent fascism is the punishment for leaving Islam — death.

Sharia also decrees a lesser status for women, and if they do not submit, then their families may kill them; no problem.

As Dutch politician Geert Wilders explained in a 2017 Breitbart interview, “Islam as an ideology does not allow freedom. Look at almost all the countries in the world where Islam is dominant — you see a total lack of civil society, of rule of law, of freedom for journalists, women, Christians, or even somebody who wants to leave Islam, an apostate.”

Wilders has also said many times thatIslam and freedom are incompatible. He should know — threats from jihadists to kill him have made personal security guards a constant necessity for him since 2004.

Yet the SPLC sides with totalitarian Islam and attacks its critics and reformers.

To that point, in October 2016 the Southern Poverty Law Center published “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” — a clear invitation for liberal reporters to use the material to condemn concerned citizens. The paper denounced 15 top voices of anti-jihad education and leadership — which also created a hit list for Islamist assassins.

Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz responded on his Facebook page, “The non-Muslim led Southern Poverty Law Center placing a jihadi target on my head by listing me (a reforming liberal Muslim) as an ‘anti-Muslim extremist’ on their hit list published today.”

So SPLC may get a scalp (or head, actually) from its attacks targeting Nawaz so viciously. Interestingly, he was once a pro-caliphate activist but later rejected that ideology and became a voice for reform. He appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO talk show a few months later and announced his defamation lawsuit against the SPLC, saying“these people in sweet Alabama decide I don’t have the right to speak about my own heritage and critique it from within.”

Nawaz went on to note, “You know who else lists heretics who are deemed to be speaking against the accepted custom within Muslim communities? The jihadists. We know what happens when you list heretics among Muslims in this way — they end up dead.”

The others in the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” are Ann Corcoran, Steven Emerson, Brigitte Gabriel, Frank Gaffney, Pamela Geller, John Guandolo, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Horowitz, Ryan Mauro, Robert Muise, Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat, and Robert Spencer. These people are heroic patriots who are trying to save America from a determined enemy of 1,400 years standing who want to establish a totalitarian world Islamic caliphate. But the SPLC intends to shut them up and thereby endanger America’s national security for the organization’s money-raising purposes. How is that not treason?

Curiously, Ann Corcoran, the creator of the excellent Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, was described in the Field Guide as having “published essays in the racist journal The Social Contract” (!) but a search could find no articles written by her. Author Peter Gemma interviewed Corcoran in the Winter 2018 issue, but that’s hardly the same thing. Accuracy is clearly not a value in the Poverty Palace, but fundraising based on fake Hate accusations is.

Another Hater listed among the “Anti-Muslim Extremists” is Robert Spencer, the author of many books about radical Islam and the producer of the informative websiteJihadWatch.org. He has been condemned by the SPLC for informing the public about the hostility of Islamic scripture to infidels and the resulting danger when unfriendly Muslims arrive en masse. The criticism he received caused Paypal to end its use on the Jihad Watch website for donations.

Spencer responded in an August 19, 2017 blog post titled: “BOYCOTT PAYPAL: PayPal bows to Left-fascist pressure, endorses jihad, drops Jihad Watch” that observed:

The SPLC lumps legitimate groups in with real hate groups in order to defame its political foes, but PayPal allowed no discussion, no appeal. It acted as judge, jury, and executioner.

In reality, I oppose jihad mass murder. PayPal apparently thinks that makes me a “hatemonger.” I oppose the murder of people who decide in conscience to leave Islam. PayPal thinks that makes me a “right-wing extremist.” I oppose honor killings, female genital mutilation, scripturally sanctioned wife-beating, etc. PayPal thinks that means I am too hateful to use their service.

The resulting public uproar against PayPal’s dropping Jihad Watch convinced the company to remove its ban a few days later. It was a great victory to win against a largely invisible Internet company, but Robert Spencer was having none of it and got another online donation link. Interestingly, the hashtag #BoycottPayPal is still kicking around on Twitter.

The disturbing upshot of the decades-long assault of the SPLC against our nation is that it will embrace any treasonous behavior against America and its defenders to make another buck — which it doesn’t even need. It survives because the left is persistent and doesn’t care about accuracy. Similarly the largely liberal press is constantly on the lookout for garbage to throw at any remotely conservative figure or cause. The SPLC has become wealthy through wickedly effective lying and intimidation with no thought about larger effects on the society. Now that it has taken the side of the enemy jihadists, America’s national security may suffer as well. But the SPLC does not care as long as the money keeps rolling in.