MOgreland

Two Cents Worth on
The Southern Poverty Law Center  

A person that I am very fond of reposted an article written by a social activist onto Facebook today, and predictably he got an argument started in the comments (that he ultimately had to put a stop to!) In his defense, and just to throw MHO into the mix, I wrote this reply, but because it is so long, good ol' Facebook will not let me post it. So here it is. enjoy!

Okay, I'm going to upset Keith again.

I hadn't heard of the Southern Poverty Law Center except in passing in the news, usually referred to in news stories regarding their legal activism regarding human and civil rights-related cases, so before I drew any conclusions and made a statement here, I felt it necessary to read the article that Keith reposted and to look up the Southern Poverty Law Center from as many different sources as possible.

This is what I found:

Almost all references to to the Southern Poverty Law Center are made alternatively by either far-left or far-right political activist organizations and their media proxies. The conventional media for the most part keeps their distance from the organization because of its questionable political positioning, much as they keep their distance from, say, Scientology, and for the same reason. Guilt by association leads to a general questioning of social authority when the source being referred to is a known extremist group.

The only source that offers a clearly and unchallenged positive perspective on the group is Wikipedia, and since anyone can write and edit a Wikipedia page at any time, we all know the validity of that source!

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a well-known advocate of protecting and defending human and civil rights in this country, and has successfully participated in several famous legal cases that have opposed corruption, abuse, and crimes against American citizens over the years.

As such, it has many important supporters and it  has made many powerful enemies. This is not a bad thing, as to succeed in legal matters you obviously have to oppose others and win over them, and they still have a right to hate you for it even if they lose the case. This simply proves that the organization has some merit or, being established by attorneys, knows how to play the game better than others, so to speak.

If that were all, everyone would be on the Southern Poverty Law Center's bandwagon. Unfortunately, that is not all. The group goes the extra step of being social and political activists for the causes that they support which, too, is not a bad thing. Everyone ought to support the causes that they believe in, of course.

However, it is how the Southern Poverty Law Center goes about supporting their causes that in turn causes the problems. They, being attorneys, are a quarrelsome and confrontational bunch. They prefer to get in your face and rub your face in the dirt, if for no other reason that that will discombobulate you, throw you off your guard, and make you easy pickings for their next oratory attack. How many of you took Speech in High School? Remember how they taught you the tactics of oratory? Winning is everything, how you win is just a tool to get there. Sure, that is somewhat questionable morally and ethically, but we're talking about winning legal and political arguments here, so anything goes, right?

Of course, that's why we all don't trust lawyers.

So, in that vein, the Southern Poverty Law Center prefers a strategy and tactics that in general moral and ethical terms puts them smack dab in the middle of the far left socialist extremist wing of the American Political spectrum. Or, in other words, arm-in-arm with individuals like Al Sharpton and groups like the ACLU. Again, not a bad thing if that is your thing, and such individuals and groups have done a lot of good things over the years. However, they have also done a lot of bad things, too. We're all human, aren't we?

The problem is that associating with such individuals and groups certainly paints you into their corner, so to speak. Of course, the same can be said regarding the other side of the spectrum if you join the NRA, or are an ardent fan of Fox News. Sometimes there is no accounting for taste, in either direction, eh?

And that is the point, ultimately: The Southern Poverty Law Center is clearly a liberal activist group and proud of it. More power to them, I say, if they can make it work. But then, I also say more power to the NRA for example, and I don't even own a gun. My point is that this is America, and as long as you aren't going around stringing people up from lampposts, you do have a right to express yourself. It says so right there in the Constitution (which everyone wants to fight over, too, BTW.)

Here is the nub of the issue, then, and probably where I will upset Keith the most. He always hates it when he says something that he thinks is very intelligent and clearly important, and you go and change the subject. I'm an Ogre, and I enjoy doing that to people just to get a rise out them. I just choose to do so when they clearly make a statement that exposes a slip in judgement, even if they are not the ones who made the slip but are just the ones who repeated it.

Sorry, Keith, I can't help myself. You have your pet peeves and I have mine. One of mine is that I hate to see a great guy like you get made a fool of by your blindly repeating propaganda spewed at you without stopping to think about it first, and maybe choosing to not repeat it at all. I know, we all do that; but you don't deserve to be made a tool like that, cos you really are an intelligent and caring guy. You just get passionate about the things that you believe in and other, more rotten people will take advantage of that. I hate to see that happen to you.

Sorry, pal; Love ya unconditionally, anyways. BTW, I think I mostly prefer it when you make such snap decisions and repost recipes about chocolate-based goodies, but again, that's just me.

My point is that here Keith has reposted something written by the Southern Poverty Law Center that is a pointed piece of propaganda, another small piece in their puzzle that they use to position themselves into the political fabric of legal and social forces of change in this country, that they use to convince other people to take up their point of view. Again, more power to 'em if they can make it work.

However, as such this cannot be taken as a reliable and unbiased source of information. Unless vetted, challenged, and showing opposing viewpoints, this is a one-sided argument and cannot be seen as anything but one side's point of view. As such, it is questionable both to promote this article as meaningful and to promote this article as an article of faith.

To protect yourself from barbs such as Randy is throwing, pal, you really need to preface such a reposting with a short comment about your position on such an issue before the link is put up. Otherwise, you are defenseless when someone with a heartfelt opposing point of view comes back at you, Keith.

You're smart enough to know that, but your passions lead you to act without thinking it through first. You've always been that way, that's one of the things that people love about you: you're smart and you're passionate, and you will go out and say what you feel. It's just that sometimes when you go and put your feelings out there on your sleeve they can get hurt, and I for one hate to see that happen to you.

So my two cents worth here are that:

1 Cent) Let's all be careful about what we post and how we post it, because doing reposting without a little review on the subject of the original post and its reasons for being posted in the first place can be a little reckless and dangerous, especially to each other, and we don't need to be hurting each other like that, and

2 Cents) Aligning ourselves with extremist groups on either the right or the left not only makes us targets for barbs that can hurt - which may not matter to you if you like that sort of attention or if you really think the position is worth fighting for - but, extremism itself is the biggest danger to a happy world, and we all know that.

There is a great quote that I'd like to repeat here but sadly I do not recall the name of the individual who stated it, or his exact words. Any fans of Ken Burns' Civil War documentary can probably quote it for you because that's where I saw it, and I hope that they speak up here and do so to share the information. But the quote is very important in this context, and I will paraphrase:

At the end of the documentary, a famous civil war historian and author made the striking comment that perhaps the greatest cause of the American Civil War was that people in America stopped talking to each other. They purposefully chose to defend extreme opposite points of view and would brook no other opinions.

Asked why this happened, the author said that one of the great strengths of America has always been that Americans have always found some sort of way to compromise. Not that that way was ever easy or without strife, but in the end Americans always found a way to get along.

It was only when Americans chose not to compromise that the country literally fell apart. That in the ultimate end is the downfall of any peoples: an unwillingness to see other points of view and make compromises, and that is the definition of extremism.

Want to see what the end result of that looks like? Look at the ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State and its behaviors today in Syria and Iraq. That is what uncompromising extremism looks like.

Who wants to see more of that at home?

I don't.

Please be careful when reposting items from one-sided points of view, people. That's a dangerous slope ....

P.S. Here are just a few examples of the articles that I found when I tried to do some research into the Southern Poverty Law Center. Clearly, there are no unbiased representations of that group to be found!

The article that Keith originally reposted, written by the Southern Poverty Law Center's founder and published on a politically left-wing blog: http://www.bemagazine.org/?p=9934

From The Daily Beast. 'Nuff said. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/13/agenda-21-the-un-conspiracy-that-just-won-t-die.html

Wikipedia's entry on the Southern Poverty Law Center:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center

From a site that looks like a leftist blog but acts like a rightist blog: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/26/FBI-Dumps-Southern-Poverty-Law-Center

And from a clearly right-wing activist site that models itself on Wikipedia: http://www.conservapedia.com/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center