Mark Davis accuses Eugene Robinson of making a mistake when he accredits a false equivalency to his statement that there is an equal amount of extremism on both sides, and that one side's extremism is equal to that of the other. Here's a sample of what he said:
Mr. Robinson is accusing me and those who agree with me on this of a false equivalency when we say that the Left and the Right both have their crazy, potentially violent fringes. And the Hutaree story gives him a springboard in which to say: ‘ Look, there’s some Right Wing violence!’ Okay, but then he goes on to essentially say well, that he says that there’s a shocking rise in this. There is? There’s – his words: ‘There has been explosive growth among far-right militia-type groups, that identify themselves as white supremacists, constitutionalists, (Ooh, can’t have that!) tax protesters, (Ooh, really can’t have that!) and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold Christian values.’ Where is the explosive growth of that? Now is there a lot of growth among constitutionalists and tax protesters? Well constitutionalists – yeah, and I guess I’m part of that. I’m not looking to blow up anything except one party rule in Washington, and I’ll look to do that in a ballot box. But this is the anatomy of the smear. When people, you know, you say the word “Constitution,” that must mean that you’re packing heat, and looking to put a bullet in some Democrat’s head. This is the slander that is in progress from these folks.
This is wrong. And here is why.
1 The Southern Poverty Law Center has enumerated most of the hate groups that live in this country and has found that the preponderance of them come from the right wing of the political spectrum.
2 Using the Southern poverty Law Center's data one can extrapolate a ratio of right to leftist hate groups from sampling via a particular region on the United States from the SDLC map
But what I did was take a random sample of very liberal states like New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and on the West Coast, California.
I did so on the hypothesis that in very liberal states there should be a very high number of left wing hate groups if you follow Baker's reasoning. And the Southern Poverty Law Center does in fact record hate groups on the leftist side of the spectrum.
And what I found out, was very interesting! To start with, New York State has close to 31 hate groups, 22 of which are right wing and only eight are black separatist. And there is one Jewish Defense League chapter. The SPLC counts one racist skinhead group in New York one Christian identity group, one Holocaust denial group, one radical traditionalist Catholic group, six white nationalist groups, two Ku Klux Klan groups, and four neo-Nazi groups.
That means that in total, the black separatist groups plus the Jewish Defense League chapter are outnumbered by the right wing groups 2 to 1 in New York State.
Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Map
If you continue to follow the Right Wing's new mantra, in liberal Massachusetts, the home of the beloved departed Ted Kennedy, there ought to be even more of those left wing radicals! Returning to the SPLC data, there are 16 hate groups in Massachusetts. Of those groups, at most three are black separatist groups. The other thirteen are right wing. Three of them are anti-gay, two are neo-Nazi, two racist skinhead, one is anti-immigrant, three are white nationalist, one is Ku Klux Klan. So that's a 4 to 1 ratio in favor of right-wing hate groups. My, the intolerance of New Englanders is stifling!
Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Map
Now, let's see what "live free or die" New Hampshire has to say.
The great state of New Hampshire has five right-wing hate groups and no black separatist or any other left wing hate groups.
It has two radical traditionalist Catholic groups, one Ku Klux Klan, one neo-Nazi and one white nationalist group. That's 5 to 0 in the Right's favor.
Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Map
California according to the SPLC has 60 hate groups. 52 of which are right wing, and only 6 are black separatist.
11 groups are of the racist skinhead variety. 3 groups are anti-immigrant. 10 are white nationalists. 7 are general hate. 1 is Christian identity. 3 are anti-gay. 2 are for Holocaust denial. 9 are neo-Nazi. 1 is a neo-Confederate group. 2 are Ku Klux Klan. That's an 8 to 1 ratio in favor of the Right.
So where are the leftists hate groups? It appears that the well has run dry. And so, the right wing is left desperately scrambling to go back decades to find an example of left wing hate. How can Mark Davis castigate Eugene Robinson for saying that the period of left-wing hate groups ended at the beginning of the 80s, when the words of a commenter on Newsbusters lend credence to those of Robinson?
What violence has ANY actual right wing militia group actually done so far in our nations history? Oklahoma City? Nope not done by a militia group.
Now lets compare that to left wing radical groups.
Anyone remember the Symbionese Liberation Army?
Anyone remember the SDS?
Anyone remember the Weather Underground?
Anyone remember the RAF?
Anyone remember the Jonestown Cult?
Yet the press paints the right as the violent side of the aisle?
Is that the best that you can come up with? You have to go so far back is to look at the Symbionese liberation Army? The most recent hate group that you could recall is Jonestown? Well, here's a list of all the present day hate groups that can be found just in that very liberal state of New York of mine, and this is going to really surprise you.
Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Map
Hate Map
Map Data: Southern Poverty Law Center
Women for Aryan Unity-Headquarters USA Chapter
White Nationalist
Brooklyn
Volksfront
Racist Skinhead
New York
United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors/All Eyes on Egypt Bookstore
Black Separatist
Mount Vernon
United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors/All Eyes on Egypt Bookstore
Black Separatist
New York
United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors/All Eyes on Egypt Bookstore
Black Separatist
Brooklyn
United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries
General Hate
New York
The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ
Black Separatist
New York
The Creativity Alliance
Neo-Nazi
Racial Nationalist Party of America
White Nationalist
Lockport
Pioneer Fund
White Nationalist
New York
North East White Pride
White Nationalist
Nordwave
Neo-Nazi
New Black Panther Party
Black Separatist
New Black Panther Party
Black Separatist
Harlem
National Socialist Movement
Neo-Nazi
Brooklyn
National Socialist American Labor Party
Neo-Nazi
National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Port Jervis
Nation of Islam
Black Separatist
Harlem
Nation of Islam
Black Separatist
Rochester
Nation of Islam
Black Separatist
Buffalo
Jewish Defense League
General Hate
Brooklyn
Iron Rain Nationalists
White Nationalist
Utica
Fatima Crusader, The/International Fatima Rosary Crusade
Radical Traditional Catholicism
Constable
Cultural Studies Press
General Hate
New York
Council of Conservative Citizens
White Nationalist
Parishville
Council of Conservative Citizens
White Nationalist
New York
Catholic Family News/Catholic Family Ministries, Inc.
Radical Traditional Catholicism
Niagara Falls
Castle Hill Publishers*
Holocaust Denial
New York
Aryan Nations Revival
Christian Identity
American Front
Racist Skinhead
Troy
* Blogger's link
And excuse me, but Timothy McVeigh was in fact a product of the miltia movement of the 90's.
Oh and, this just in: there are a few right wing groups and bloggers who now consider the Southern Poverty Law Center itself to be a left wing hate group!
An example of this is an article written in the National Expositor.
The article was written by one Marti Oakley. I got a little curious about Marti Oakley, and found at least one article that she had written previously, which gives me an example of the temperament of this person who is accusing the SPLC of being a hate group:
Oakley's open letter to George W. Bush states her paranoid delusion that Bush intends to unPite the United States, Canada, and Mexico into one large superstate.
The failure of any of your three Attorney’s General to secure our border with Mexico against this illegal colonization and immigration, is a direct result of your intentions to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into one big continental country
.
And a person of this caliber had this to say about the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Appealing to the prejudices and fears of a less than astute audience, the SPLC spends much of its time “red-baiting”, only now it isn’t the commies we need to fear, it is those damn patriot movements! It is those people who want illegal immigration stopped; our borders secured; those who advocate for a smaller less intrusive government. And it is here that SPLC attempts to tie the skin- heads and other racist groups, to the patriot movement. It is very important for SPLC to make this connection and to implant it into the collective mind of the public. If they are unsuccessful in doing so and are forced to actually look at the patriot movement for what it actually represents, they would also have to admit that their purpose is propaganda; using it to diminish and marginalize those who are willing to exercise their constitutional right and duty to dissent when government has moved outside its predefined limits as laid out in the Constitution.
It is extremely important to SPLC that the American public come to view any attempts to take our government back from the corruption that is eating away at our foundations as a country as, “rage from the right”. SPLC has to label the movement negatively then, demonize it by negatively portraying not only those in the movement, but what the movement is truly about.
The violence Potok is so afraid of has actually come from the government itself and this violence is escalating. Violence from the government against the people was seen at Ruby ridge, Waco and is now embedded even in the healthcare reform act. This act makes non-compliance with an unlawful mandate from the federal government punishable by fines and imprisonment and the act of defending one’s self from forced compliance worthy of a shot to the head. I don’t think you can get much more violent than that. It seems Potok and the SPLC don’t consider it a violent act if the government is the agent holding the gun.
And Americans For Truth About Homosexuality declared: "Southern Poverty Law Center officially declared 'left-wing hate group"
Case in point: Recently, the SPLC came under fire for comparing the “Tea Party” movement and other grassroots conservatives to “terrorists.” Potok slandered “Tea Party” goers, suggesting that “they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” and are widely linked to “hate” and “vigilante groups.” Of course there are always a few nuts in any movement, but clearly Potok’s intent was to defame tens of millions of patriotic “Tea Partiers,” simply because he disagrees with them.
While SPLC organizes against obvious hate groups such as the KKK or Aryan Brotherhood, it also lumps in conservative organizations in an attempt to intimidate them. For instance, SPLC considers Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) a "hate group", because it opposes illegal immigration, and uses demonstrations as a method, which the SPLC deems intimidation.[12] Similarly, the center labels the immigration reductionist/reformist website VDARE as a "hate group", because it argues against illegal immigration [13].
Also smeared as "hate groups" by the SPLC include: the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, and The Social Contract Press (a liberal group publishing environmentalist works such as those of Garrett Hardin, apparently solely because they republished French writer Jean Raspail's 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints which foretells catasrophe befalling Europe from boatloads of illegal immigrants arriving from South Asia).
Another example is the Council of Convservative Citizens, a conservative activist organization that advocates on behalf of states' rights and against immigration, communism, racial quotas and gun control. SPLC labels all members as racist because a minority of members had decades-past connections to segregationist organizations. In fact, the CCC attracts such mainstream speakers such as former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Gov. Kirk Fordice (R-MS) and Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), and engages in charitable and cultural events.
Well, that's one point of view that you could take. On the other hand, if you take the point of view of Right Web, probably another hate group as far as Conservapedia is concerned, then there is another way of looking at the Council of Conservative Citizens.
CCC is closely tied to the American Nationalist Union, another white supremacist organization. Among the organizations and links that CCC recommends are American Renaissance, First Freedom, American Patrol, Resisting Defamation, Vdare, NumbersUSA, Sam Francis Online!, and Civil War Two. (4) Although at first glance a marginal organization, CCC has increased its credibility and visibility by inviting such congressional members as Trent Lott (R-MS) and Bob Barr (R-GA) to address its conferences. Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice has attended CCC gatherings, and according to CCC co-founder 34 members of the Mississippi state legislature are CCC members." (7) Other CCC speakers have included Edward Butler, a Christian identity, anti-Semitic preacher; David Duke, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan who urged members to fight for their "white genes;" and James Taylor of the supremacist American Renaissance organization. (3)
CCC vigorously defends the public display of the Confederate flag as a symbol of white identity, and has the flag prominently displayed on its web pages. CCC warns of the coming "massacre of the White population" in South Africa, posting grim photos of mutilated white cadavers, implying that they were victims of hate crimes by black South Africans. Below these gruesome but uncredited photos, CCC warns: "Today South Africa is less than 10% White. Someday, American Whites will be a minority. IT CAN HAPPEN HERE." (5)
Hip-Hop Republican says:
My Reply.....Forget David Duke we need to throw out the bums at The Council of (RACIST) Conservative Citizens ...Ohh and there supporters
But perhaps the horses mouth is the best witness for what the Council of Conservative Citizens is. This is from their own magazine the Citizen Informer:
(2) We believe the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people. We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character. We therefore oppose the massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples into the United States that threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime. We believe that illegal immigration must be stopped, if necessary by military force and placing troops on our national borders; that illegal aliens must be returned to their own countries; and that legal immigration must be severely restricted or halted through appropriate changes in our laws and policies. We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called “affirmative action” and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.
What is a hate group? Cha Cha gives us this definition:
Categorized: Definitions
Source: What Is A Hate Group | www.information-entertainment.com
Description: a hate group is two or more people who are part of a club, organization, religion, etc. whose purpose is to promote the agenda of what is the subject of their hate.
Answered: Nov 23 2009, 05:35pm
Hate Group: The term “hate group” is used to describe any organization in any sector of society that aggressively demonizes or dehumanizes members of a scapegoated target group in a systematic way.
My take:
Hate groups separate society into segments. They do so out of paranoia. They do so out of a twisted belief that if they put down other segments, their own segment will be improved.
This paranoia, is created by a mistaken belief that somehow their segment has been robbed of some kind of golden age or status by the other segment, either by group contamination or the gradual attaining of economic or political power, and the only way for them to regain this golden age or status is to put down and oppress that other segment, in an effort to "purify" society by radically restricting or removing the "offending" segment from society.
In other words, at the heart of all hate groups are simply varying degrees of totalitarianism. And the jealous paranoia of totalitarianism, makes these groups interprete any attacks and criticism of them as some sort of nefarious move by those evil segments to destroy these "heroic" groups. In other words, by responding to legitimate criticism of their own questionable activities, with unjustifiably accusing the accusers of themselves being a hate group, the entire right wing is conducting itself as if it were itself a giant hate group. And that is the ultimate proof of the bankruptcy of their own ideas.
Interesting questions from Cha Cha:
What are in groups and out groups in psychology?
What is the in group out group concept?
What is out group hate?
Addendum: I mistakenly put the first "yes" vote in this poll. I meant to vote "no," but i didn't catch it until it was too late! I can't delete the poll, but it's still good, so use it!
Addendum I found this fascinating article in Psychology Today that talks about Tea Partyers, but it is relevant to the subject here in question:
The paranoid strategy is to generate a narrative that finally "explains it all." A narrative-a set of beliefs about the way the world is and is supposed to be--helps make sense of chaos. It reduces guilt and self-blame by projecting it onto someone else. And it restores a sense of agency by offering up an enemy to fight. Finally, it offers hope that if "they"-the enemy, the conspirators--can be avoided or destroyed, the paranoid person's core feelings of helplessness and devaluation will go away.
Take an extreme case. Someone I saw years ago had a paranoid delusion that orbiting satellites were trying to control his mind. He went to great lengths to insulate his apartment so as to repel these psychic assaults. When I got to know him better, I discovered that he developed this delusion as a way to make sense of an on-going but terrifying experience--the genesis of which lay in his childhood--that he wasn't a separate person and didn't have the right to his own thoughts. This terrifying feeling of helpless vulnerability was rendered comprehensible to him by his delusion about orbiting satellites. In a paradoxical way, his delusion reduced his terror even as it generated its own fears and dangers.