Who decides what constitutes a “hate group”? The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, apparently. They have the task of arbitrating which organizations have unconscionable views on all the morally serious issues of the day, in order that trusted outlets such as NBC News can point to some higher authority in reporting how “accused hate groups receive pandemic aid.”
The NBC News report reveals that “all the groups assessed . . . are actively promoting hateful ideologies, whether through literature, online content or grassroots organizing.” Indeed, it was none other than hate groups “primarily focus[ing] on advocating against immigrants and opposing the advancement of homosexual and transgender rights” that were in receipt of the Paycheck Protection Program money.
These included:
- American Family Association
- Federation for American Immigration Reform
- Liberty Counsel
- Center for Immigration Studies
- Church Militant/St. Michael’s Media
- Center for Security Policy
- David Horowitz Freedom Center
- Pacific Justice Institute
- Clarion Project
- American Renaissance / New Century Foundation
- Ruth Institute
- American College of Pediatricians
- The Remembrance Project
Perhaps some of the aforementioned are spouting the sort of bile associated with the Ku Klux Klan. But why should we trust the judgment of people who have designated as a “hate group” the American College of Pediatricians, one of the very few groups to speak out publicly against the tremendous cruelty of sex-change experiments on gender-confused children?
All too often, one man’s “hate group” is another man’s bastion of hope. With the exception of organizations whose activity is illegal, if the PPP, a program designed for employers with 500 employees or less, is going to exist in harmony with the First Amendment, it cannot discriminate based on viewpoint.