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On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled several parents’ rights organizations “hate and antigovernment groups” alongside groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The extremist watchdog’s “Year In Hate and Extremism 2022” report counts 1225 “hate and antigovernment extremist groups” being present in the US last year, up from 733 in 2021, with several of the new additions focusing on parental rights and education issues.
Why the focus on parents?
Be informed, not misled.
“Schools," they say especially, "have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups.”
In the introduction to the 2022 report Director Susan Corke writes, "Two weeks after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, I joined SPLC to lead its historic work to track, expose and counter hate and extremism in the United States. With our democracy in crisis and the danger of former President Trump’s 'big lie' exposed, I was hopeful both parties' political leaders would choose to protect our nation from extremists."
I was wrong.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is "wrong" on a number of things.
Corke continues: "In 2022, the hard-right movement mobilized hate and extremism from the mainstream to the main street. Extremist actors — often armed — brought hatred into our daily lives and public spaces, protesting LGBTQ inclusion, reproductive rights, and classroom discussions of systemic racism."
And she notes that SPLC was "founded to ensure civil rights for all, SPLC has deep expertise in monitoring — and holding to account — the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazi movement, racist skinheads, antigovernment militias and other domestic hate groups and extremists."
They actually don't have "deep expertise," but are steeped in prejudice and activism.
Normally what they think would not matter to most of us, but because a number of government agencies look to the SPLC for guidance in labeling domestic terrorism and hate groups, unfortunately, their reports do matter.
The report explains, "Across the country, states instituted new laws that have forced teachers to cut and alter lessons addressing Black history, impacting student access to inclusive, accurate and education about the country’s history of racism."
The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday labeled several parents’ rights organizations “hate and antigovernment groups” alongside groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
"SPLC's Year In Hate and Extremism 2022” focuses on parental rights and education issues.
“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s report argues.
New additions to the "bad people" list include parent groups.
“The group hijacks meetings, preventing officials and parents from conducting their normal proceedings,” the report adds, claiming that the organization’s activities “make it clear that the group’s primary goals are to fuel right-wing hysteria and to make the world a less comfortable or safe place for certain students – primarily those who are Black, LGBTQ or who come from LGBTQ families.”
Other education-centric groups added to SPLC’s “hate map” in the report include No Left Turn in Education, Parental Rights in Education, and Parents Involved in Education.
Mom's response
What is supposed to be a dishonorable designation by the Southern Poverty Law Center is being called a compliment by Moms for Liberty, one of SPLC's newest targets, since getting a “hate group” label suggests your work is getting noticed. Meanwhile, a group co-founder warns parents are the real hated target.
"We are people that do not back down," Mom's co-founder Tina Descovich tells AFN. “When you tell us we can't do something, it emboldens us to want to do it more and to work even harder."
Moms For Liberty was started in 2020 by Descovich and Tiffany Justice, both former public school board members. Both were elected school board members in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic when they witnessed parental frustration over closed schools and forced mask-wearing. Both women saw how parents were ignored and mocked by school board members, too, and vowed to stand up for the parents who were standing up for their kids.
Moms says it has grown to 285 chapters in 45 states, with 120,000 “joyful warriors” participating, so it is not surprising the fast-growing group caught the attention of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s controversial “hate map” was updated this week to include Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, and Parents Defending Education.
According to Descovich, the new attention to parental rights at the SPLC is no accident. She has not forgotten how the Biden administration worked with the National School Board Association president, Chip Slaven, whose well-timed letter to the White House in 2021 asked the federal government to investigate parents.
Slaven's now-famous letter, which compared parents to "domestic terrorists," was drafted with help from the Biden administration. That fact was only uncovered thanks to a Freedom of Information request from Parents Defending Education, now designated a "hate group," according to the SPLC.
"This stuff – these behaviors, these attacks that are relentless and endless – started with the Biden administration,” Desccovich warns. “With the FBI and DOJ, with threat tags last year, and moved into the NSBA and other three-letter organizations within the U.S. government.”
In fact, according to The Washington Free Beacon in its story about Moms for Liberty and the SPLC, Corke visited the White House with a team of SPLC-affiliated researchers as recently as January of this year.
The Free Beacon story outlines how SPLC is working together with the Justice Department and other government agencies to undermine parental authority. I recommend you read it.
Visitor logs show Corke and the left-wing researchers met with John Picarelli, counterterrorism director for the National Security Council.
Corke and the SPLC are determined to cast caring parents as domestic terrorists while handing the child off to the government to raise and educate as they see fit.
Takeaway
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX.) said this about SPLC: "The SPLC is a hateful, bigoted, and despicable organization. They're now attacking and labeling parents who want to have a say in their own kids' education."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Bold. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.