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Yesterday, the Justice Department announced a sweeping indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for, among other things, allegedly funding the very extremist organizations it claims to oppose. The indictment states that the SPLC funneled more than $3 million to radical figures and groups from 2014 through 2023.
SPLC fundraising skyrocketed following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which was portrayed by corporate media as a violent, racist, radical gathering. That coverage also included the false claim that President Donald Trump referred to neo-Nazis as “very fine people.” It now appears that the SPLC itself helped fund that rally, ostensibly to create a justification for censorship, debanking, and the broad persecution of conservatives.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put it plainly: “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
The SPLC has long served to provide corporate media outlets, political figures, and even the FBI with cover for targeting those on the right who run afoul of progressive sensibilities, labeling them as extremist hate groups while portraying itself as a neutral arbiter. Conservatives have recognized this grift for years, especially after a gunman attacked the office of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., following that organization’s inclusion on the SPLC’s “hate map.”
In 2023, the SPLC labeled traditional Catholics as white supremacist extremists, which the Biden FBI used as justification to crack down on social conservatives, including arresting pro-life activists for praying in front of abortion clinics.
Steve Sailer has followed the SPLC for decades, explaining how founder Morris Dees used direct mail to raise millions from well-meaning American liberals moved by warnings of growing hate and extremism. When the supply of overt racism diminished by the late 1990s (as Sailer notes, Ku Klux Klan membership had dropped from millions to around 2,000, many of whom were surely federal informants), Dees and the SPLC began applying the same rhetoric to mainstream conservative organizations such as Turning Point USA.
Dees himself was fired in 2019 by the board of the organization he founded, perhaps because he stubbornly remained an old white man.
In recent years, the SPLC has also targeted Idaho, tarring Sen. Tammy Nichols as a radical right-wing extremist and associating her with neo-Nazis. It has characterized organizations such as the Idaho Freedom Foundation as “far-right” and deserving of scorn.
In 2020, Daily Signal reporter Tyler O’Neill wrote the book on how the SPLC had been inflating the specter of “hate groups” in America to scam unsuspecting donors of their hard-earned cash:
I’ve been analyzing this hate map for years, noting that the SPLC pads the numbers, partly by including groups for no reason other than their disagreement with the SPLC’s hard-left agenda, and partly by listing every single chapter of an org as a “hate group.”
This indictment makes one wonder what else in our society is left-wing kayfabe. Several conspirators in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were later revealed to be undercover agents, as were participants in Ammon Bundy’s occupation of a federal building in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. Was the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, instigated or encouraged by federal agents or their allies in nonprofits like the SPLC?
Matt Walsh covered the indictment on his show today, and speculated about what else we might soon learn:
The SPLC was not offering money to genuine conservatives who were effective at advancing conservatism… The idea was to fund and prop up the alleged right-wingers who were useful to SPLC and the left… And I suspect that soon… we’re gonna find out that there are a fair number of alleged conservative figures, the most embarrassing and ridiculous ones, who’ve been getting paid by the forces they pretend to oppose… There’s a symbiotic relationship between left-wing activist groups and the supposedly right-wing grifters, and this relationship has always been obvious. Now we’re learning about its financial dimensions.
His entire show is worth watching:
It’s long been obvious, at least to me, that if over-the-top figures like David Duke and Richard Spencer did not exist, then organizations like the SPLC would have to create them to justify their own existence. Perhaps that’s exactly what they did.
This affair is a timely reminder that a network of leftist figures and institutions—from politicians to nonprofits to corporate media outlets—exists with the goal of undermining conservatives as they work to preserve our nation for future generations. This network operates aggressively and will not hesitate to smear reputations, rely on guilt by association, or outright lie to achieve its ends.
The only way to win is not to play. Ignore political figures or corporate journalists who cite the SPLC as a neutral authority to label you—or those you support—as “hateful” or “extremist,” as Jim Jones did just last week. Their goal is not to inform, but to manipulate—just as the SPLC has done for decades—by portraying Christian and conservative beliefs as inherently dangerous to society.
Hopefully, this indictment is the first step toward holding accountable those who have misled the public for so many years.
Feature image from the Department of Justice YouTube channel.
About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
