Last week, the Department of Justice unsealed 11 indictments against the , charging the organization with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to a federally insured bank. At the heart of the alleged scheme was a shocking operation in which the SPLC paid “informants” embedded inside the very extremist groups it claimed to oppose, including the Nazi Party of America, the KKK and Aryan Nations. The indictments reveal these characters to be more than just moles, but rather the leaders, organizers and key influencers that make these groups work.
As a conservative, Ive watched these revelations with a sense of righteous vindication. For years, those of us on the right have viewed the SPLC as a caricature of , but we also shouldnt dismiss its poisonous influence in progressive circles. Saturdays failed assassination attempt at the Correspondents Association Dinner only underscores the seriousness with which we must approach the radicalizing propaganda network of the far left, especially groups like the SPLC, which wield outsized influence. As history tells us, that influence can come with deadly consequences.
In 2010, the SPLC added the Family Research Council to its widely circulated “Hate Map.” Less than 22 months later, an armed gunman entered the organizations Washington, D.C., headquarters intending to carry out a mass shooting. He was heroically stopped by a security guard and later admitted he had used the SPLCs map to select his target.
To understand how the Hate Map came to play such a role, its worth revisiting how the SPLC rose to prominence. Founded in 1971, the organization built its reputation through litigation aimed at advancing desegregation, expanding minority voter representation in the South and dismantling organized Klan activities. Fortunately for the country, but unfortunately for the SPLC, by the 1990s, its preferred targets had largely receded from public life. Klan hoods, swastikas and burning crosses were relics of a bygone era.
This should have been celebrated by the SPLC, but instead, it represented an existential threat. Business was drying up. New targets were needed to satiate the worst fears of its generous donors still eager to cosplay as feted activists from the heyday.
So in 2000, the SPLC created the Hate Map, an interactive tool that allowed prospective donors to click through and see just how much “hate” was lurking in every corner of the country, probably in a neighborhood near you.
The map proved to be brilliant marketing. Filled with red â the color of hate and the â the Hate Map was visual confirmation bias for the NPR donor class that wanted to believe the only true evil remaining in the world was white supremacy.
But the SPLC soon discovered it could raise even more money by broadening the definition of “hate.” According to the SPLC, these extremists existed only because a broader network of mainstream conservative and Christian organizations provided the requisite permission structure for them. Groups opposing or defending traditional marriage were added to the list. Over time, the map included organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, PragerU and yes, (TPUSA). The line between violent extremism and ordinary ideological disagreement was deliberately blurred.
But the SPLC still had a problem. There just werent enough real, outward signs of white supremacy to sustain the business model. So it decided to , the organization reportedly funneled millions of dollars through shell companies to pay extremist leaders, organizers and recruiters to subsidize the very stereotypes of 1960s-style white supremacy that had originally made the group famous.
The return on investment was extraordinary. In 2017, immediately after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville â an event we now know was organized with the help of an SPLC informant paid roughly $270,000 â the organizations revenues nearly tripled,
