Apple falls for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s charade. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would donate $1 million to the Southern Poverty Law Center, match employees’ donations to the group two-to-one, and make it easy for iTunes subscribers to donate to SPLC as well.
Decades ago, the SPLC was a venerable organization that worked to counter the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations. But in recent years it has redefined the hate in its “hate group” designation in a way that both diminishes the danger of real hate and inspires intolerance and incivility in our public discourse. In short, as Katrina Trinko explains, SPLC has become part of the problem:
“[T]he Southern Poverty Law Center doesn’t just blast neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups as ‘hate groups.’
“It also smears groups like Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom, two socially conservative organizations that have bravely advocated traditional marriage, as ‘hate groups.’
“There is no equivalence between the actions and views of a KKK supporter and a traditional marriage supporter.
“Yet that equivalence is exactly what the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate groups’ list promotes, by listing groups like the American Nazi Party and Aryan Nations on the same list as Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that just won a case in front of the Supreme Court this year, and Family Research Council, a respected social conservative group.”
As Trinko points out, there are two well known cases of fans of the Southern Poverty Law Center using violence against conservatives: James T. Hodgkinson allegedly shot Rep. Steve Scalise in June, and Floyd Corkins shot Leo Johnson, a security guard at the Family Research Council, while attempting to gain access to the building to commit more mayhem. [The Daily Signal]
