The Southern Poverty Law Center was formed with the worthy goal of tracking shadowy hate groups and extremists whose actions threatened to undercut the promise of equality and justice for all of the Civil Rights era. But, alas, in recent years, the outfit has drifted from its mission. In its efforts to impose the liberal orthodoxy on everyone, it has become too trigger-happy, branding dissenters as haters.
A case in point is its attack on conservative feminist Christina Hoff Sommers, whom it accused of enabling male supremacy. One can agree or disagree with Sommers, but such accusations are beyond the pale. It is an effort to demonize her with guilt by association.
The SPLC criteria for identifying hate figures and extremists is so ridiculously loose that it might not even spare the Dalai Lama, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia.