Birds on the Brain

Family Research Council Action PAC president Connie Mackey

The Southern Poverty Law Center designated the Family Research Council as a hate group. There’s been some recent criticism of that designation, particularly in light of the apparently politically-motivated shooting of at an FRC office. The defense, essentially, is that FRC is way too mainstream to be a hate group.

I have a lot of respect for the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’re smart people—and they don’t make this sort of designation lightly. I think this sort of reflexive endorsement of Akin should help everybody understand where the SPLC is coming from on their designation. The willingness to promote obviously and verifiably false and harmful misinformation in order to attack perceived political enemies is pretty characteristic of a hate group.

I don’t think everybody who disagrees with me on LGBT issues is hateful. I also don’t think we should limit our designation of hate groups to fringe organizations. After all, the Klan was once pretty mainstream—and it was definitely a hate group.

You may not agree with SPLC’s designation. But perhaps FRC’s reflexive willingness to traffic in falsehoods to advance their political agenda at least gives you a sense of where SPLC was coming from.

(via squashed)

I’m not surprised to see FRC line up behind Akin, since Akin’s views are pretty widespread among right-wing Christians.