Jesse Walker, of the Reason Foundation and author of an upcoming book, "The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory," said counting groups isn't a good way to measure the threat. "I'm dubious to assume growth in numbers is related to violence."

Also, the center's definition of hate groups has changed in the past year, kicking up a controversy. Critics accused the group of unfairly bundling together organizations with vastly different points of view -- and painting them all as potentially violent.

For example a North Carolina-based group calling itself "Granny Warriors" appears on the SPLC list of active "patriots."

It's well known that the SPLC employs a pretty broad definition for what constitutes a hate group or domestic threat. Objectionable as the Family Research Council can be, especially now that they've brought on frothing Islamophobic hawk Jerry Boykin as a VP, few would consider them worthy of DHS's attention. Even the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank condemned the FRC's "hate group" designation after it nearly led to a mass shooting.

The SPLC's listing of "patriot groups" is even more broad and pointless: if you look at the 2011 list, every state chapter of the Constitution Party and the John Birch Society is counted separately. The Tenth Amendment Center is listed along with Nullify NOW!, even though the latter is a campaign put on by the former. The numbers are inflated to the point of meaninglessness, and though I can't find a link to the organizations included on this year's list, one wonders if the number of patriot groups really has had "explosive growth" or whether the dragnet has just gotten wider.

Ken Silverstein's 2000 profile of the organization is worth a re-read:

who could object to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Montgomery, Alabama-based group that recently sent out this heartwarming yet mildly terrifying appeal to raise money for its "Teaching Tolerance" program, which prepares educational kits for schoolteachers? Cofounded in 1971 by civil rights lawyer cum direct-marketing millionaire Morris Dees, a leading critic of "hate groups" and a man so beatific that he was the subject of a made-for-TV movie, the SPLC spent much of its early years defending prisoners who faced the death penalty and suing to desegregate all-white institutions like Alabama's highway patrol. That was then.

Today, the SPLC spends most of its time -- and money -- on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate. "He's the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement," renowned anti- death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer says of Dees, his former associate, "though I don!t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye." The Center earned $44 million last year alone -- $27 million from fund-raising and $17 million from stocks and other investments -- but spent only $13 million on civil rights program, making it one of the most profitable charities in the country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has nothing to do with the Law or poverty. It's director,Morris Dees,who I believe was convicted of child molestation several years ago, is a shakedown artist who makes Jesse Jackson look tame. He scares little old ladies all over America by seeing a Nazi behind every bush,then asking for a donation. His Leftist political views are wrapped up with his views on terrorism thus smearing patriotic Americans, like Ron Paul and others, who believe in a strict construction of the Constitution,hard money and are critical of the Federal Reserve and the IRS. He does this by making anyone who disagrees with his Leftist views into some kind of racist,antisemitic,homophobic,
sexist radical. Why anyone takes the SPLC seriously is a mystery.

37.
I never said he was, there have been past news stories about it that i have not kept up with, hence why I said I believe he was. I never said it was a fact. No one for sure take your for seriously on here, no mattet what your party does its alwasy those evil conservatives fault. Yet what is 100% fact is they are a left leaning group that has been called out time and time again on their BS reports.

"In 1986 the entire SPLC legal staff resigned in protest of Dees refusal to address issues such as poverty,homelessness, voter registration and other issues they considered more pertinent to poor minorities rather than to get rich fighting a Klan chimera. [Harpers Magazine. Silverstein, Ken.
The Church of Morris Dees.
November 2000."

44. Fair enough

Despite real world changes that have made inter-ethnic gang violence and the threat of radical Islamic terrorism a far greater threat to the stability of American life, the SPLC sticks with this always-reliable cash cow that brought them this far: scattered remnants of the KKK, misfit "neo-Nazi's" and other bizarre and fringe outfits that the SPLC unilaterally concludes are "hate groups."

When the SPLC names a "hate group," no specific information is disclosed. No footnotes are given, no facts are checked and no procedure exists to validate the claims. Let's turn to its crimson red "hate map." What do we see? Not much. In California, we see a group in Sunset Beach, California called "Volksfront" which the SPLC has classified as "Racist Skinhead." No specific information is given about this group: specific location, how many members, website, etc. We're just told there's a hate group somewhere around Sunset Beach. A quick look at the website reveals it is just part of Stormfront's chat room and appears to consist of one or two scattered misfits. Stormfront.org seems to be by far the biggest "White Nationalist" website in the country (around 75,000 unique users a month) and it seems to function solely as a chat room and message board. The SPLC, it seems, has an institutional need to multiply "hate groups" notwithstanding evidence to the contrary. We also read about the Jewish Defense League, the Nation of Islam and the Voz de Atzlan ( the SPLC completely ignores anti-Semitism within certain radical Chicano communities), but most of the "hate group" entries nationwide are what we would normally associate with Caucasian-dominated bigot networks. Apparently the pleas for money don't work unless the SPLC engages in ethnic profiling. The FBI Crimes Stats shows none of their claims at all and they demean one the best factually true data on crimes statics the SPLC claims. At least the FBI can cite real evidence to back up their claims unlike SPLC that make up excuses for how they came up with their claims I hate.

The SPLC's is quite candid about its intent: its stated purpose in this case is to try to chill speech, to marginalize opposing ideas and to attempt to control the media's programming decisions and thereby determine what ideas people will hear