By BombThrowers -- Chace Paulson —— Bio and Archives September 17, 2017
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There might be forms of hate out there that you may consider hateful, but it’s not the type of hate we follow.Cohen’s euphemistic idea of “hate” conveniently allows the SPLC to avoid condoning Antifa violence without offering any real challenge to the far-left, but it can’t erase Antifa’s actions. Antifa, or “anti-fascist action,” has its origins in the 1920s and 1930s during the resistance to the rise of fascism in Italy and Spain, and National Socialism in Germany, but it quickly died out as a political movement after World War II. Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election triggered a new wave of so-called “anti-fascists,” who used the name “Antifa” to lend their terrorist movement an artificial legitimacy with the mainstream media. The black-clad group is known for damaging property, inciting riots, and assaulting individuals who doesn’t support their extreme agenda. Antifa is responsible for smashing windows and setting fires during protests at the University of California, Berkeley, and inciting a protest at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany that left 196 officers injured. Naturally, Cohen’s refusal to identify Antifa as a hate group prompted outrage, but it’s consistent with the group’s strategy of assailing organizations which don’t hold to the SPLC’s ideology. Founded to combat legitimate hate groups, the SPLC initially earned respect by winning legal battles which helped to bankrupt groups the Ku Klux Klan. But it soon became a victim of its own success as hate groups largely died out and far-left leadership took over—prompting the SPLC to seek new, non-hate group targets such as the Family Research Council (FRC), a respected Christian charity. The group’s slander has inspired the hate crimes it was founded to prevent – as in 2013, when Floyd Lee Curtiss II assaulted FRC headquarters intending to shoot its employees and “smear [] Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in [their] faces.” Curtiss later cited the SPLC’s hate group label as the reason he attacked the FRC.
For groups that do not threaten violence, the use of SPLC ‘hate group’ or ‘extremist’ designations frequently are exploited as an excuse to silence speech…taint[ing] not only the group or person, but others who associate with them.
In 2015, the organization spent $20 million on salaries, but only spent $61,000 on legal services. This, despite boasting of a staff of 75 lawyers for the purpose of litigating on behalf of “children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBT rights, and criminal justice reform.”Labeling Antifa a hate group simply doesn’t fit the SPLC’s self-serving narrative—or its bottom line.
Bombthrowers is a blog about politics and the war for the hearts and minds of Americans from a conservative viewpoint.
In line with our name, we do not hold back. We have a take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to fighting for conservative principles. The Left doesn’t play nice, and that’s why they’ve been winning. It’s time for conservatives to rise up and turn the tide.
We’re not afraid to take on anyone, especially the Washington Establishment—Republican or Democrat.
Bombthrowers is a project supported by the Capital Research Center. Its editor-in-chief is Matthew Vadum.