Political narratives attempt to explain contemporary issues, are easily digestible, and are easily transformed into talking points. Unfortunately, they are often inaccurate: January 6 was an insurrection, abortion is health care, white supremacy is the greatest threat to America, Israel led the United States into war with Iran, the world is doomed by climate change, etc.
The goal is to establish a narrative’s unquestioned validity without explaining or defending the premise, the equivalent of losing weight without exercise or altering your diet. Emotional appeals work best. In fact, most narratives lose their appeal once past the façade and on to examining facts. Even when no longer remotely true, they continue to serve their purpose–and they can last indefinitely. New circumstances or new information should call for a re-examination, but that process is counter-productive to a narrative which has paid so many dividends–and too much work in any case. Please don’t complain. You want to win, don’t you?
The narrative often lacks context, but then it is not intended to be a debate topic. It is a shotgun blast, intended for a large audience who will spread it as quickly as possible. Preferably, it becomes entrenched before a counter is even mounted. Broad segments must accept the narrative, so it is necessarily facile, easy to understand, and appealing to our sense of self-righteousness. An element of truth facilitates its spread, but an accurate depiction of reality is not its ultimate goal.
Facts don’t matter when you are morally right. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The narrative helps one side or individual win: to win more votes (generally by tarnishing an opponent), to advance one’s place in a party or movement, to soften the faithful to what comes next, etc. Ideally, narratives could be developed to help grasp essentials of complex situations, but the headline has more impact than the painstakingly crafted white paper.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Joseph Goebbels
Today, we are bombarded with so many competing narratives, generally without knowing their origin, often without understanding their purpose. We enter a marketplace with a bevy of vendors competing for our attention. Whose narrative will we accept? We all need a cause to fight for. The winning narrative greatly advances its proponents and cause immensely. It has great power.
Once established, dislodging the narrative can be extremely difficult. Extolling the experience of a root canal is easier than convincing your neighbor the narrative has latched onto is untrue. As a side benefit, competing narratives become second rate and are challenged accordingly. Best of all, it feels wonderful to be so certain, to be so right about something so important. You are in the know, understanding what leaders are actually up to or knowing the underlying story. You have exclusive inside knowledge which eludes others not as keen as you.
On the other hand, it is far too painful to admit the narrative you’ve selected, the knowledge that sets you apart, is actually specious, so folks instead cling to the precious. Besides, you are to smart to be fooled or upstaged by your gullible neighbor or nefarious political opponents.
More than 1 in 3 Americans has cut off a friend, family member, coworker or romantic partner because of political differences — and the trend appears to be accelerating, according to a new study published Monday in PNAS Nexus, a peer-reviewed open-access journal affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences . . . Among those who experienced a breakup, 62% said it was with a friend, 40% with a family member, 29% with a coworker and 10% with a romantic partner.
The SPLC
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), founded in 1971, is an organization built upon a narrative, a narrative that has mushroomed into a significant industry buttressed by government programs and institutions the past sixty years:
“The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.”
Their charter outlines a worthy goal. Who isn’t for ending racial injustice and more harmony among all? Unfortunately, the definition of racial injustice has expanded and been weaponized to discredit all political opposition. The SPLC is not strictly fighting racial injustice; it is now an appendage of the Democrat Party, advancing the exact same narratives. Let’s promote the racial justice defended by the SPLC, but not the other causes the SPLC unnecessarily links to it.
As a youth in the South during the 1970s, I recognized (and was sometimes influenced by) the racial animosity of that era. Back then, the narrative regarding racial hatred and white supremacy had validity: Jim Crow laws, segregated communities, facilities, and schools, open displays of racial intolerance, etc. were in the recent past. Even still, America changed dramatically from eight years earlier when Martin Luther King gave his “I have a Dream” speech. I-have-a-dream-speech
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
The situation has changed even more dramatically since 1971. Segregated water fountains, burning crosses, blacks stepping aside for whites, and all the rest seem bizarre and surreal today. Nobody but those on the extreme periphery of society seeks a re-institution of that ugly paradigm. Still, the narrative: racial discrimination of people of color is uniquely perpetuated by white supremacists and white supremacy is a clear and present danger–has not markedly changed.
That narrative has become indestructible, benefitting the Democrat Party and those making a living advancing the narrative, but this is a massive racial conspiracy theory wildly oversold. America has restructured countless institutions, created DEI offices throughout government and industry, created thousands of private organizations like the SPLC to monitor the situation, threatened, bullied, and fired ordinary folks for being insensitive to distorted perceptions of reality, created a new lexicon of terms (micro-aggressions, critical race theory, unconscious bias, etc.), and given free reign to media’s hyper-sensitive focus on “systemic racism” and “white supremacy”, both of which have been dying on the vine since the mid-1960s. Ironically, as the racist mentality of the 1960s has steadily declined and America become increasingly tolerant, the response to this perceived danger has commensurately increased.
The battle was won. Racism of the 1960s is completely discredited today. Nobody of any stature would openly align with it today. The Left has created the term “unconscious bias” to explain why it is hard to detect, but this term is absolute nonsense invented in an ivory tower.
If the SPLC racism narrative were a stock its Price/Earnings ratio would have skyrocketed to new highs; it would be a candidate for an epic stock price correction to match reality. Unfortunately, the price correction has never materialized. Meanwhile, the racial conspiracy theory has been joined by countless new recruits. It doesn’t take much to confirm one’s belief in the overpriced and outdated narrative.
Like any other expanding industry, anti-racism has also become increasingly lucrative for its purveyors. America has been outstanding in eliminating or mitigating the problem, perhaps even in part due to the SPLC’s efforts. The industry should be scaled back dramatically, but that proposition simply cannot be accepted. No. We still need the SPLC, now and forever. The horse and buggy too is still more reliable than these new fangled cars; let’s bring them back too.
There has been evolution (or rather devolution) of thought since 1971, mainly with regard to tactics, not in validating the supposedly inviolable narrative. Today, white conservatives (along with a few black conservatives who, per the narrative, have been brainwashed by systemically racist institutions) rather than white Southerners, have become the target. Political opponents of the SPLC racial narrative are demonized; they are not only labeled racists, but also anti-Semites, misogynists, and they supposedly engage in phobias of all sort. The SPLC liberally applies all the outlandish narratives; the list of hateful behaviors grows continually as new meaningless terms are introduced.
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.” Hillary Clinton, 2016
Being a white conservative (or worse: approving of one or more President Trump’s policies) is enough to validate accusations. Anyone holding conservative political principles, for whatever reason, is a rotten apple. Any policy, legislation, or ruling not to the Left’s liking is labeled racist or some sort of phobia. Voter ID, re-districting, deportations, have all recently been labeled “Jim Crow 2.0” by Senate Minority Leader Schumer. The same play is run continually, applied to whatever is disliked.
This non-stop branding by the Democrat political machine is the most insane clandestine operation of my lifetime; yet, vast numbers accept the narrative as gospel. New charges are invented and blindly accepted. I receive incredulous responses when I doubt the scope of racism in America today. Simply questioning the narrative makes me problematic. Anti-racists have learned well from Goebbels, perhaps without even realizing who they are modeling.
The well-respected and often quoted, Dr. Kendi displays the insanity of progressive thought on the issue.
‘The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.’ Dr. Ibrahim X Kendi, former Director of the Anti-Racism Center, Boston University
https://www.britannica.com/topic/discrimination-society
discrimination, the intended or accomplished differential treatment of persons or social groups for reasons of certain generalized traits.
The SPLC’s “Hate Watch” page is chocked full of Leftist narratives. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/. Causes or institutions conservatives support, the SPLC opposes and vice versa. Your neighbor might be a fine person, but an army of hateful racists abound, hiding within your midst; their influence is ubiquitous. You would be lost without the SPLC to expose them.
The narrative is appealing because it elevates supporters above those narrow-minded hateful conservatives. Furthermore, it helps you also oppose “they” who are preventing you from reaching your full potential.
Justice Prevails?
The SPLC was recently indicted for money laundering; they hid payments to people inside watched hate groups and misled their supporters by doing so. The indictment validates suspicions of us who disdain the SPLC’s tactics.
A Grand Jury in Montgomery, Alabama, today returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable.
Attorney General Blanche voices our concern: the SPLC supports the very hate groups it opposes to justify its continued existence. This is not yet proven legally, but appears within the realm of possibility once you understand the SPLC’s tactics.
Reduce racism to minimal levels, something already accomplished, and the SPLC should diminish. Instead, the SPLC expands their purview. For instance, President Trump is linked to Nazism, antisemitism, and “Christian supremacy” (whatever that is):
History, Christian supremacy, antisemitism and the battle for shared safety
April marks when Allied forces liberated seven Nazi concentration camps 81 years ago. Six million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust because of Nazi racist ideology. Amid the increasingly authoritarian actions of the Trump presidency, and the politicized use of antisemitism by hate and antigovernment groups on the hard right, remembrance and historical documentation…
No evidence is provided, but of course, all in their sphere of influence readily accepts these claims.
Christians who oppose homosexuality (the behavior, not the individual) are suspect too. Christianity has proscribed homosexuality for thousands of years, in both the Old and the New Testament; yet, opposing gay marriage, a concept invented five minutes ago by comparison, lands one on the “Hate Watch”:
‘Greater Than’ effort revamps anti-LGBTQ+ junk science against marriage equality
On Jan. 28, the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Them Before Us led the announcement of the “Greater Than” campaign, an effort to repeal marriage equality.
Also highlighted are hateful conservatives who spread COVID-19 disinformation, make the United Nations a “bogeyman”, and exploit de-transitioning narratives. Never mind that as a political organization, the United Nations should be in-line for criticism or that COVID-19 vaccines have legitimate safety concerns, or that transitioning as well de-transitioning experiences are indeed harrowing experiences.
Why has the SPLC even wandered into these spaces? These concerns are unrelated to racism and white supremacy, their supposed focus. Furthermore, there is no consideration that opposing positions are derived from sincere religious or political beliefs or common-sense observations. They are categorized as “hateful” no matter how one arrives at these conclusions.
The SPLC’s sophistry is despicable. They simply label folks holding positions differing from their preferred politics. No wonder conservatives are gleeful after their indictment.
As a Catholic, I am particularly appalled by the SPLC’s attack on faith. They highlighted “radical traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) as anti-Semites and violent extremists, and then fed the FBI this nonsense; the FBI in turn warned the public:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Richmond_Catholic_memo
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), “radical traditionalist Catholics” are a subset who “may make up the largest single group of serious anti-Semites in America” and “subscribe to an ideology that is rejected by the Vatican and some 70 million mainstream American Catholics.”[5] The SPLC distinguishes this group from mainstream traditionalist Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass.
“RTCs are typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and white supremacist ideology,” the document states.
I am a lifelong Catholic and have attended a large Catholic parish for more than twenty years. My children attended the parish school for eight years. I know vast numbers of people in my parish as well folks in numerous other parishes. There is no such violence or hatred. It is a total falsehood, but the charge plays well with folks unfamiliar with Catholicism. The SPLC should look in the mirror instead of out the window.
The Latin mass is uncommon today as Pope Francis placed restrictions on its practice in 2021. Even still, during the vernacular mass, Latin prayers and hymns are commonly sprinkled in. Praying “Agnus Dei” (Lamb of God) or singing “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary) is not dangerous or subversive. Catholics understand the Latin phrases and offer prayers accordingly. These are no secret codes designed to stir up the faithful to nefarious purposes. They are exactly what they purport to be: prayers to God.
Implying the faithful are radicalized by expressions of faith demonstrates SPLC folks are either egregiously ignorant or absolute fiends. All evidence points to the latter. The SPLC opposes the Catholic church’s positions, especially on abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism, so they discredit the faithful by inventing stories regarding our rituals. This is a blatant and immoral manipulation of biases towards Catholics, on par with the manipulation of biases towards blacks in a prior era.
Thankfully, the FBI eventually rescinded the “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” report after a former agent criticized “reliance on partisan sources”. https://www.christianpost.com/news/fbi-cites-splc-to-warn-about-radical-traditionalist-catholics.html
The Indictment:
The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”
Throughout a ten-year period the SPLC gave $1 million to one KKK organizer and then placed that same individual on their “Hate Watch”. That’s a nice annual salary. The SPLC claims this was an appropriate payment to an undercover informant. Why then expose him by placing him on the “Hate Watch”? Was this to further protect his undercover status or was it actually illicit activity as the Attorney General and the FBI Director claim? Let’s determine by trial if this individual, funded by the SPLC, “utilized the funds . . . to facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes” while in the SPLC’s employ.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1437146/dl
The SPLC also had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia. That field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.
Another serious charge is: donor money was used for a purpose donors did not intend:
However, unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The SPLC’s paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.
To hide payment sources (from whom and why?), the SPLC created an elaborate scheme similar to what we expect from organized crime:
In order to covertly pay the individuals, the SPLC opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities. The covert nature of the accounts allowed the SPLC to disguise the true nature, source, ownership, and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the individuals. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts.
Many today avoid the ugliness of politics, but unfortunately, organizations like the SPLC are not avoiding you. If you hold positions unacceptable to the SPLC or practice a faith which holds such positions, you are likely already an SPLC target. You should be aware, so you can push back before it is too late. Without you engaged, the SPLC wins by default.
Hopefully, this indictment and subsequent trial will expose the treachery of the SPLC and diminish its and its narrative’s power. They are both badly off-track and long overdue for a major course correction.
Dave https://seek-the-truth.com/about/
https://seek-the-truth.com/category/systemic/
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