Commentary

Beyond libel: How the SPLC uses lies, distortions, and disinformation as a political weapon

By Brian Camenker
September 18, 2018

If there’s any barometer that MassResistance is gaining influence, it’s the fact that the extremist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – the well-funded centerpiece of left-wing hate in America – has recently revved up its engines to expand its attacks on us.

More than ever, in this age of Trump, the Left simply cannot defend its ideas or positions with rational discussion. It must rely on the most extreme vitriol in the form of lies, distortions, disinformation, and dishonesty. This is something that most conservatives would never think of doing, but it is part of the Left’s mindset.

The SPLC is the real hate group.

The SPLC’s aim (which they have often admitted) is to destroy those who disagree with them. By any rational definition, the SPLC itself is a hate group. They see themselves as the ideological weapon that the mainstream media, corporations, and social media can use to crush conservatives.

We’re used to it. For example, for years the SPLC has used completely phony quotes to paint me as a kind of Holocaust denier – even though I’m Jewish and three of my four grandparents were born in Eastern Europe. They have touted some MassResistance chapters which don’t even exist as dangerous “hate groups.” I could go on and on with their lies.

But last month the SPLC really outdid themselves. They published an attack against MassResistance that is bizarre even by their hideous standards.

Titled “California chapter of anti-LGBT hate group MassResistance gets a white nationalist member,” the article is a vicious attack on our California MassResistance leader Arthur Schaper, a wonderful activist – and also, of course, on me.

The latest epithet-du-jour of the Left is “white nationalist” which replaces “bigot, hater, homophobe,” etc., for the time being. Unlike the Leftist group Black Lives Matter, which exemplifies hatred toward police in particular and white people in general, the term “white nationalist” seems to encompass almost anything the Left doesn’t like. (At a so-called “white nationalist” rally in Boston last year - so labeled by the Boston Globe - the main speaker was a black man. But why let that get in the way of the Left’s narrative?)

This SPLC rant is a breathtaking read. Pretty much every sentence is a lie or absurd distortion of some kind. One almost thinks it was written by a group of middle school students.

It freely breaks rules of common logic. For example: If you’re at an event and someone else (possibly a Leftist) shouts something, the SPLC tags you with it. [ad hominem / guilt by association] This kind of thing is done throughout the article.

No real journalist could write this stuff. If you oppose illegal immigration, you are “anti-immigrant” and a “nativist extremist.” If you debate someone you disagree with, the SPLC paints you with the other person’s “bad” views. The SPLC fumed because someone “sitting near” Arthur “reportedly” shouted something bad at a meeting. How absurd!

The article is littered with half-truths (or outright lies) about Arthur and his activities. It repeats the distortions in other far-left publications and local left-wing media. There’s not a single “fact” in this article that you can trust at face value.

Any student of the Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels will instantly recognize this style of “journalism.” And these hit pieces are being funded by many of America’s major corporations, such as Apple and Morgan Stanley, who even match employee contributions to the SPLC.

If there’s any humor here it’s the fact that they do include a few direct quotes which are accurate, but will horrify liberals. Arthur actually did write:

Nothing, of course, remotely compares to the violence and disgusting profanity which conservatives regularly endure from aggressive leftists, SJWs, Antifa, etc. No comments from the SPLC on any of that.

What should this tell conservatives?

It means we are getting to them. Extremists like the SPLC don’t react like this if a group poses no threat to their agenda and ideology. It shows that we are doing the right thing, and we need to keep doing it.

The truth is, the liberal reporters who constantly use the SPLC to demean conservatives in their articles know full well what a fraud it all is. They keep doing it because they’re liberals themselves and there’s generally no push-back from our side. Well, we’ve been working on that, too. We’ll show you in an upcoming MassResistance article!