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SPLC Admits Defining ‘Hate’ Is
Purely Subjective
By Dave Gahary
In the last decade, AFP
has frequently reported on well-funded U.S. and international
organizations that are set up for the sole purpose of smearing decent
patriotic Americans and others as “haters” and
“racists,” simply because they do not agree with these
groups’ liberal outlook. The danger here is that these so-called
“civil right groups” often work closely with law
enforcement agencies, using paid informants to infiltrate
meetings and spy on people. Detailed information is collected and
kept in files or turned over to police to help facilitate
lawsuits and prosecutions— even prison sentences.
AFP had the chance recently to interview Mark Potok, the spokesperson
for Morris Dees’s Southern Poverty Law Center, a
multi-million-dollar operation that sees itself as America’s
premier civil rights organization, but more broadly exists to
pigeonhole Americans into subjective categories of “hate.”
Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC)
“Intelligence Project,” tasked with monitoring “hate
groups” and “extremists,” freely admitted to AFP
that the method SPLC staffers use for determining “hate” is
not at all a science.
When asked if there is a definition on the SPLC’s Internet site
that explains the parameters or metrics used to determine
“hate,” Potok had a short reply: “Not really.”
Potok was then asked if this kind of approach to classify
“hate” is subjective, and he replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, there’s some art as well as some science in it.”
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This admission from the editor of the quarterly magazine Intelligence
Report, the “nation’s preeminent periodical monitoring the
radical right in the U.S.,” could be seen as alarming. A
subjective, therefore inaccurate “hate” judgment from Potok
and company at the SPLC could ruin someone’s life or even become
a jail sentence, especially since the magazine is sent free to law
enforcement agencies.
According to what Potok told AFP, the SPLC “train[s] anywhere
between 2,000 and 8,000 police officers a year . . . in everything from
hate crimes training to, much more typically, training in hate groups
and
domestic terrorism.”
Even more alarming, someone can be classified as “hateful”
even if they’ve never committed any crimes nor seem poised to do
so in the future, but simply for expressing their “politically
incorrect” opinion.
“The listings are not based on criminality or violence or any
kind of estimate we’re making as to the potential of violence or
criminal actions . . . [but] based strictly on ideology,”
continued Potok.
Amazingly, Potok explained why “hate” is not defined by the
SPLC.
“Part of the reason we don’t publish a definition . . .
this is our opinion, this is our evaluation based, we think, on
objective factors,” said Potok. He says this, even after
admitting that the process is clearly subjective.
The SPLC’s Internet site comes fully equipped with a “hate
map” that displays a spiffy graphic of the United States and a
drop-down menu that allows users to select a state and view
corresponding lists of “hate groups.”
The SPLC supposedly isn’t in the business of infiltrating such
groups but instead claims on its site: “The list was compiled
using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement
reports, field sources and news reports.”
Obviously, one of the dangers in this type of approach is interpreting
the authenticity and content of the source material from the
individuals and groups the SPLC decides to monitor, as well as the
accuracy and dependability of eyewitnesses, police and
“news” reports. The fact that “history” is
littered with errors seems not to bother Potok.
It’s interesting to note that the SPLC’s unscientific,
subjective virtual slandering applies to the publication you’re
currently reading.
AMERICAN FREE PRESS is listed on the “hate map” under the
“not easily categorized” category of “General
Hate,” which has an equally
ambiguous and unsettled definition:
These groups espouse a variety of rather unique hateful doctrines and
beliefs that are not easily categorized. This list includes a
“Jewish” group that is rabidly anti-Arab, a
“Christian” group that is anti-Catholic and a polygamous
“Mormon” breakaway sect that is racist. Many of the groups
are vendors that sell a miscellany of hate materials from several
different sectors of the white supremacist movement.
Potok and the SPLC need to take a lesson from themselves:
“hate” is certainly subjective and “not easily
categorized.”
Dave Gahary is the
host of AFP Podcast, an audio interview series available on the
Internet and on compact disc. See more at americanfreepress.net. Gahary is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and
an outspoken advocate of the Constitution.
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(Issue
# 5, January 31, 2011)
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