Why did the SPLC put parental rights groups on the same list as the KKK?

The
Southern Poverty Law Center
just released its
yearly report
and updated “
hate map
” for 2022. The SPLC meticulously documents each neo-Nazi group, KKK chapter, and racist militia in the country. Oh, and this year, it also includes parental rights groups.

Yes, you read that correctly.

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On this year’s
hate map
and “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, the SPLC included 230 chapters of Moms for Liberty, 12 chapters of Parental Rights in Education, and “many” local chapters of U.S. Parents Involved in Education.

An
entire section
of the SPLC report is dedicated to the “assault on inclusive education,” which begins by comparing the condition of education debates in 1960 to those in 2022. It then goes on to list some of these groups’ ideas that are supposedly akin to those of neo-Nazis — things such as saying critical race theory is anti-American and supporting a ban on gender identity and sexual orientation instruction for children in kindergarten through third grade. You know, truly shocking stuff.

The Daily Signal
pointed out
that “the SPLC report does not once mention the Left’s aggressive promotion of sexualized material for children in schools and at other venues. It does not mention the ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ movement or the fact that many of the books which parents demand removed from school libraries include pornographic content.”

In other words, this amounts to a regular partisan political attack. The SPLC disagrees with the new education policies in many red states, which is not unreasonable, but then is using its power to suggest everyone who has a different opinion is a crypto-racist or KKK member. That is the real problem here.

This is far from the first time the SPLC has tried to squash dissent by lumping people in with Nazis. It has
labeled
mainstream voices, including
Christina Hoff Sommers
,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
,
Ben Carson
, and
Sen. Rand Paul
(R-KY), as extremists or agents of hate. The SPLC also
attacked
the conservative Family Research Council. Kyle Smith at National Review
summed it up
well: “Its core mission now is trying to marginalize and shut up even mildly right-of-center voices by calling them instruments of hate, making increasingly strained attempts to tie conservative commentators, authors, political figures, and professors to the alt-right or neo-Nazism.”

This can teach us at least one thing: There are no groups as alarmist as left-wing nonprofit organizations. In recent weeks, it seems that the hysteria has only worsened. The NAACP, along with other groups, issued a
travel advisory
for Florida, warning that “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” And Human Rights Campaign
declared
a “national state of emergency” for LGBT people yesterday.

The reason these groups issued those statements, and the reason SPLC put these conservative groups on its “hate map,” shares at least one commonality: making a splash in the media through ridiculous declarations results in greater media coverage and thus greater donations. There is every incentive in the world to do this over and over again.

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But the SPLC is also unique in that there is likely a greater ideological motivation for its decision than some of these other groups. The reason is that it was once a thoroughly respected organization and today is still trusted by the establishment press. Consequently, it has the power to stigmatize almost any group it wants. After all, once the SPLC sticks a nasty label on a group it doesn’t like, the media can simply repeat, over and over, that the organization is an “SPLC designated hate group.” And the media do.

Although this is a thoroughly dishonest enterprise, there is no denying that it brings in the money. And in the end, isn’t that what nonprofit organizations are all about?

Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.