Posted on 04/11/2013 10:15:58 AM PDT by AuntB
The Southern Poverty Law Center has released its annual report on "The Year in Hate and Extremism," in which the organization estimates the size of the "extremist" threat. Since its count of hate groups has dropped since last year—the number went down from 1,018 to 1,007—the center is hyping a 7 percent increase in another category: what it calls "conspiracy-minded antigovernment 'Patriot' groups." The SPLC's definition of "Patriot" is pretty broad: The list ranges from the conservative websites WorldNetDaily and FreeRepublic.com to the Moorish Science Temple and its offshoots. The Moors, a black militant movement, are presumably included because they sometimes borrow ideas from the sovereign citizens and other folks often associated with the right.
For SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok, that 7 percent surge is a sign that a growing terrorist threat demands the Department of Homeland Security's attention:
Eighteen years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote then-Attorney General Janet Reno to warn about extremists in the militia movement, saying that the "mixture of armed groups and those who hate" was "a recipe for disaster." Just six months later, the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed. Today, with our country’s political polarization at historic levels and government officials being furiously demonized by Patriots, we may be approaching a comparable moment.
In the 1990s, warnings that might have averted some of the violence from the radical right failed to stick. Now, as we face another large and growing threat from the extremists of the Patriot movement, the country needs to do better. One important start would be to demand that the Department of Homeland Security, which gutted its non-Islamic domestic terrorism unit after unjustified criticism from the political right, rebuild its important intelligence capabilities.
A different story emerges if you study the list itself. For one thing, while the number of Patriot groups has gone up since last year, the number of militia groups has gone down, from 334 to 321. That doesn't necessarily mean that there are fewer people involved in militias: One quirk of the SPLC's decision to measure activity by counting groups is that if an organization splinters in a faction fight that shows up as growth, but if two smaller groups join forces it looks like shrinkage. But given that Potok invokes the militias in both the opening and the conclusion of his article, and given that the article makes a big deal of the increased Patriot count, it seems disingenuous not to mention that the militia count is actually declining.
More important, neither the number of militias nor the number of Patriot groups writ large is a good proxy for the number of potential terrorists. As I wrote in response to an earlier edition of the SPLC's list, the Oath Keepers—whose chapters take up 67 spots on the 2013 list—have a history of distancing themselves from violent-minded supporters, and the whole point of the organization is to persuade the government's agents to refuse orders the group considers unconstitutional, a central tactic not of terrorism but of nonviolent civil resistance. Meanwhile, 41 groups on the SPLC list are chapters of the John Birch Society. Far from an adjunct to the militias, the Birchers—notorious for their own conspiracy theories—devoted a lot of effort in the '90s to debunking the more elaborate conspiracy yarns popular in much of the militia world. They frown on insurrectionary violence, too, sometimes suggesting that it merely plays into the hands of the Grand Cabal.[snip]
Look, the author of the posted article might be wrong, but you haven’t read ALL of SPLC’s reports, so please stop saying you have. FR, along with every other conservative group, including teaparty.org is on the SPLC hit list!
Yup. Clinton. The most corrupt useful idiot to ever occupy the W/H before Obama. But it’s all about race. /sarc
FR is for God, Life, Family, Country, Liberty. Clinton and Obama are nothing but constitution hating, capitalism hating, anti-America, big government, godless abortionist/homosexualist pushing statists. Yes, we object to these useful idiots regardless of their religion, race, creed or color.
If the SLPC can’t handle that, toughshitski.
Yes, and I objected to Romney for the exact same reasons.
The closest the liberal haters have come to 'Victory' was Zimmerman - who turned out to be a Hispanic... and liberal... and related by blood to blacks."
Strange analogy. Are you saying that you believe George Zimmerman to be guilty of a crime?
No problem.
I’ve written to the author of the article and asked him to cite the exact reference. It bothers me because I can’t find the exact text either. There’s enough uninformed, poorly vetted ‘news’ out there, I won’t be part of furthering it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Marcella.
FYI
Ok, Mr. Walker was kind enough to get back to me and attached the report.
Hate group lists 2012 PDF
Active Patriot Groups
Page 8, column 3 Free Republic Fresno
He sent this as a pdf, and I have no idea how to get that from there to here...yes, I’m computer challenged.
I will forward it by email to Jim for his verification.
Wow...’Hate group’....and then....’patriot’ all wrapped up together. Well, all my life I wanted nothing more than to be a patriot of this incredible nation. I didn’t expect it to ever be under the label of ‘hate’.
I think we’re going to have to take back our plain spoken, constitutional language before we can take back our country.
The SPLC is a leftist cover group trying to be a money magnet.
They have, in the past, hired on people who earlier worked for Jack Abramoff ~ which tells me they don't vet folks all that well.
Thanks for the info. Since they have all that money, maybe they’re ideology driven.
ideology and access to children ~ pretty consistent pattern there
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