Is the Southern Poverty Law Center itself a hate group?

So, what differentiates the Southern Poverty Law Center from the hate groups it lists? It is not an organization whose primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility and malice against people belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity which differs from members of the group, so the answer would be "no, it is not a hate group." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_group If you believe that the SPLC does not adequately bring attention to Anti-Christian groups, you are entitled to believe that, but it doesn't make them a hate group, anymore than a quilting bee which also (somewhat predictably) doesn't spend much time addressing Anti-Christian groups.

Rhetorical nonsense. Here's the difference: any group that finds itself on the SPLC's lists can get itself off that list, simply by demonstrating that it does not do what the SPLC thinks it does. For instance, take misogyny: if (say) this "False Rape Society" actually in practice provides legal support for men who have a credible case for being falsely accused of rape, and they can demonstrate that, then SPLC will scratch them off the list. If on the other hand the "False Rape Society" mainly publishes material that proffers the stereotype that most accusations of rape are false and should be treated as such, then they are misogynistic (promoting a society in which rape of women is tolerated so long as there is some ambiguity), and they belong on the list. The definition of a hate group precludes the possibility of getting off the list. There is nothing blacks can do to be treated as 'normal' by the KKK, nothing hispanics can do to be treated as 'normal' by the people of the US Border Guard, nothing gays can do to be treated as 'normal' by certain fundamentalist Christian sects, and nothing women can do to be treated as 'normal' by people who believe they have an intrinsic right to have sex whether or not there is full consent. They cannot get scratched off the list, because who they are intrinsically is what got them on the list in the first place. That's hate. I'm all for protecting Christians, Mormons (and incidentally, Mormons are Christians, right?), conservatives, and men from systematic expressions of hate. I'm sure if that ever happens the SPLC will be right there with me, protecting them the way it tries to protect everyone else. But let's be frank: being told that one is not allowed to be a self-righteous prig is not an act of hatred against a group; it is a universal condemnation that applies to everyone. Most of the ambiguous cases in your list are just exactly that: groups of people who are offended because they got called out as self-righteous prigs, and are doubling-down to reassert their entitlement to be self-righteous prigs. And that's the choice they face: if they keep doubling-down they will become hate groups (I can easily see men in a degraded form of the False Rape Society chanting that "No means Yes, Yes means Anal" slogan some frats have picked up); if they stop being prigs and give up their sense of intrinsic entitlement, then they will morph into regular, non-problematic interest groups. Get it?

No, Morris Dees'  SPLC is not a hate group, duh. By the way, they are not that influential. They do get some press, but their stories of racist groups growing does get as much traction when Bobby Jindal can get elected Governor of Louisiana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Dees They have made a habit of suing people and supporting lawsuits. They do have an occasional political (generally Democratic) or policy slant. They do take note of the animal liberation / earth liberation people every few years, an occasionally other groups generally associated with the left. The biggest slant they have is around immigration.  They have characterized a number of immigration restriction organizations as hate groups. To be completely fair, SPLC does put up a good case the some groups, like FAIR, are tainted with racist associations... http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/federation-for-american-immigration-reform-fair Evidently, people who advocate the U.S. using a point system like Australia and Canada are part of hate groups, as is anyone opposed to illegal immigration. What SPLC does may serve to turn immigration policy debates - which need to be thoughful and nuanced -  into name calling.  They are not alone in doing this, but it is unlikely to help produce good policy.

Most definitely. This sad press-release factory is the hated-filled end of liberalism in America. There is one spectacularly angry white man at the center of it, just as nearly every hate blog a;ong the liberal left today is headed by angry white men. A pinpoint quote regarding Christian resistance to the rather Stalininst decision on gay marriage early this summer: The crybaby race hustlers at the Southern Poverty Law Center are incensed by the tactic. “The reason they don’t want to issue license[s] at all is because [of] anti-gay bias or a belief in traditional marriage,” said Scott McCoy, a lawyer with the hatemongering organization. It’s a good rule of thumb that if you’re pissing off the SPLC, you’re doing something right. http://takimag.com/article/rise_of_the_stoics_james_miller/print#ixzz3jVsg2dxg http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/meese-southern-poverty-law-center-despicable-naming-conservative-organizations-hate Former Attorney General Edwin Meese says it is “despicable” for the Southern Poverty Law Center to classify the Family Research Council and a dozen other top conservative organizations as “hate groups” similar to the Ku Klux Klan. “I think it’s ridiculous,” Meese told http://CNSNews.com about the list published by the SPLC. “I know about seven or eight of those groups. I know the people very well. I know the groups very well, I’ve worked with them over the years, and I think it actually undermines the credibility of the Southern Poverty Law Center to make such a statement.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designated_by_the_Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_as_hate_groups http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/audio/2012/08/istook1091-its-time-to-end-those-phony-hate-group-labels http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/243921-shooting-spurs-heated-battle-on-gay-rights-and-hate-group-label http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/24/frc-labeled-a-hate-group/ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/16/is-the-family-research-council-really-a-hate-group.html All in all, I think that we can safely assume that any Democrat-friendly organization even considering how hate-driven messages from the SPLC disserve the public will lose their Soros and environmental extremist  funding.