1 00:00:02,100 --> 00:00:06,860 Shutting down people you don’t agree with is about as un-American as you can get. 2 00:00:06,860 --> 00:00:12,419 Rigorous debate, honest discussion, open exchange of ideas—that’s the American way. 3 00:00:12,419 --> 00:00:17,430 But free thinking and speech are threatened today by a group with a sweet-sounding name 4 00:00:17,430 --> 00:00:19,990 that conceals a nefarious purpose. 5 00:00:19,990 --> 00:00:24,590 This group is called the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC. 6 00:00:24,590 --> 00:00:30,200 Originally founded as a civil-rights law firm in 1971, the SPLC reinvented itself in the 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,580 mid-‘80s as a political attack group. 8 00:00:32,580 --> 00:00:37,960 Every year now it produces a new list of people and charities it claims are “extremists” 9 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:39,540 and “haters.” 10 00:00:39,550 --> 00:00:44,090 Aided by glowing coverage from the establishment media, the SPLC’s hate list has become a 11 00:00:44,090 --> 00:00:51,010 weapon for taking individuals and groups they disagree with and tarring them with ugly associations. 12 00:00:51,010 --> 00:00:54,020 The SPLC employs a two-pronged strategy. 13 00:00:54,020 --> 00:00:58,840 First: find a handful of crazies, with barely any followers, no address, and no staff, 14 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:05,020 and blow them up into a dangerous movement -- proof that there are neo-Nazis lurking everywhere. 15 00:01:05,030 --> 00:01:11,490 On their notorious “Hate Map,” the SPLC lists 917 separate hate groups in the U.S.! 16 00:01:11,490 --> 00:01:13,869 No one has even heard of more than a handful of them. 17 00:01:13,869 --> 00:01:18,570 The second strategy of the SPLC is to undermine legitimate political voices that they oppose, 18 00:01:18,570 --> 00:01:22,080 by associating them with extremists like the KKK. 19 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,520 Take the charity known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. 20 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,000 The SPLC lists them as a “hate group.” 21 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:29,320 Is that fair? 22 00:01:29,320 --> 00:01:35,020 Well, the ADF has a network of 3,000 attorneys from all across the U.S. who’ve donated 23 00:01:35,020 --> 00:01:38,800 more than a million volunteer hours in defense of religious liberty. 24 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,579 They’ve had a role in 49 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court. 25 00:01:42,579 --> 00:01:47,640 Putting the Alliance Defending Freedom on a list with 130 Ku Klux Klan chapters is not 26 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,120 only wrong, it’s malicious. 27 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:55,740 According to the SPLC, one of the most influential social scientists in the U.S.— Charles Murray 28 00:01:55,740 --> 00:01:58,140 —is a, quote, “white nationalist.” 29 00:01:58,140 --> 00:02:02,640 Ayaan Hirsi Ali, perhaps the most eloquent spokesperson for the rights of Muslim women, 30 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,100 is, to the SPLC, a “toxic... anti-Muslim extremist.” 31 00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:11,620 Scores of other individuals and charities active in mainstream conservative or religious 32 00:02:11,620 --> 00:02:17,459 causes have likewise been branded by the Southern Poverty Law Center as threats to society. 33 00:02:17,459 --> 00:02:21,230 Mind you, it is entirely fair to disagree with any of those folks. 34 00:02:21,230 --> 00:02:25,430 But it is utterly unfair to call them haters or extremists. 35 00:02:25,430 --> 00:02:31,790 The largest category listed by the SPLC as extremists -- with 623 entries -- covers groups like 36 00:02:31,790 --> 00:02:35,349 the Tea Party organizations that are wary of centralized government. 37 00:02:35,349 --> 00:02:38,640 Last time we checked, favoring smaller government was a mainstream 38 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:41,400 and perfectly honorable American tradition. 39 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:47,380 What is not honorable is the course prescribed by a leader of the SPLC, Mark Potok, who was 40 00:02:47,380 --> 00:02:51,500 caught on video proclaiming the organization’s true intentions. 41 00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:57,580 He told a group of supporters, quote, “the press will describe us as ‘monitoring hate groups’…. 42 00:02:57,580 --> 00:03:02,040 I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, 43 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,300 to completely destroy them.” 44 00:03:04,300 --> 00:03:10,300 Portraying someone with political views different from your own as a public menace…is bullying. 45 00:03:10,300 --> 00:03:12,080 And it’s a dangerous game. 46 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:17,640 Instead of reducing hate and violence, the SPLC’s name-calling directly incites it. 47 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:22,220 In March 2017, Charles Murray was trying to discuss his acclaimed book Coming Apart at 48 00:03:22,230 --> 00:03:27,730 Middlebury College when he was violently attacked by protesters inflamed by the SPLC’s labeling 49 00:03:27,730 --> 00:03:29,650 of him as a racist. 50 00:03:29,650 --> 00:03:32,720 A professor escorting Murray ended up in the hospital. 51 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:37,900 In 2012, a gunman attempted mass murder at the Family Research Council, and failed only 52 00:03:37,900 --> 00:03:41,120 because the first man he shot managed to disarm him. 53 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:46,020 The attacker told the police he acted because the SPLC had listed the Family Research Council 54 00:03:46,020 --> 00:03:47,520 as a hate group. 55 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:53,150 It’s a vicious irony: while promoting itself as a monitor of “hate groups,” the SPLC 56 00:03:53,150 --> 00:03:56,909 has in practice become a fomenter of hate. 57 00:03:56,909 --> 00:04:00,019 Yet the group rolls on, bigger than ever. 58 00:04:00,019 --> 00:04:01,500 What keeps them going? 59 00:04:01,500 --> 00:04:04,840 For one thing, the establishment media constantly quote them. 60 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:10,079 Scare stories about right-wing stormtroopers are a sure way to attract eyeballs, and fit 61 00:04:10,079 --> 00:04:14,250 nicely with the media’s own preconceptions of the “dangerous reactionaries” lurking 62 00:04:14,250 --> 00:04:15,739 out there in middle America. 63 00:04:15,739 --> 00:04:19,310 Second, alarmism is a great fundraising technique. 64 00:04:19,310 --> 00:04:24,870 Convincing people there are fascists everywhere has turned the SPLC into a cash machine. 65 00:04:24,870 --> 00:04:30,020 Last year, the group hustled $50 million dollars out of frightened liberal donors, adding to 66 00:04:30,020 --> 00:04:34,639 the $368 million dollars of assets they were already sitting on. 67 00:04:34,639 --> 00:04:41,240 So, the next time you see the Southern Poverty Law Center quoted in the news, just remember: 68 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,180 the masterminds behind the SPLC aren’t eliminating hate; 69 00:04:45,180 --> 00:04:46,920 they are fueling it. 70 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,200 I’m Karl Zinsmeister for Prager University.