SPLC ‘Hate Map’ Fuels Leftist Claims Of Extremist Threat

Prominent leftist officials and activists frequently insist that White supremacy, Christian nationalism, and other forms of far-right extremism are on the rise nationwide.

To help spread that narrative, entities like the Southern Poverty Law Center routinely classify individuals and organizations as “hate groups” despite a dearth of evidence that they actually endorse any harmful or extremist ideologies.

Even the SPLC is apparently finding it difficult to identify new sources of right-wing hate, as evidenced by its latest map. The leftist organization’s 2022 report names 523 supposed hate groups, which is the lowest number since the first report was released in 2000. 

The number has been on the decline in recent years despite the SPLC’s decision to include seemingly innocuous names such as the parental rights organization Moms for Liberty.

In an apparent effort to bolster the prevailing narrative that a dangerous right-wing sentiment is gaining ground across the U.S., however, the group decided to add a new category to its map. Now, 702 so-called “anti-government groups” are also included in the report, allowing the SPLC to claim that it is tracking a total of 1,225 groups. 

The new category provides a lower threshold for including groups that run contrary to the SPLC’s leftist worldview. Its latest report provided a distinction between the two categories.

“Hate groups hold beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics, while antigovernment groups see the federal government as an enemy of the people and promote baseless conspiracy theories,” the organization wrote.

For her part, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice was quick to denounce the group’s inclusion in the SPLC hate map.

“We are a group of moms and dads and grandparents and aunts and uncles, community members that are very concerned about the direction of the country,” she said.

Nevertheless, the SPLC list carries significant weight within certain industries and was reportedly the catalyst for the Next Door app’s decision to exclude a Tennessee chapter of Moms for Liberty from its platform. 

“They canceled us using the list from SPLC, which falsely suggests we belong among truly hateful and terror groups like the KKK,” said chapter chair Tonya Dodd. “That’s the exact opposite of what we truly are.”