Letting down the side?

Aditya B. writes:

Guruji:

My heart breaks at the thought of having to criticize my teacher. I hope you will forgive this impertinence.

The SPLC has released its latest list of thought criminals. Neither you, nor VFR, is on this list. I can only conclude that this represents a lack of diligence on your part.

Once again, forgive the impertinence, but I suggest you regard this list as a “wake-up call.” You must work harder if you want to reach for the stars, and, once again, be noticed by Commissar Comrade Beirich.

Let this serve as a wake up call to all of us. Let us strive mightily for the highest honor in the land: a place in Comrade Beirich’s “enemies list.”

Regards,
Adi

LA replies:

I always felt that Heidi “Beria” Beirich had a soft spot for me.

Seriously, there’s something I didn’t realize myself until I had looked at several of the articles about the 30 people on the list. This list is not a list of “hate” groups or “hate” leaders per se, though several of the articles speak of “hate” groups. When I first began reading it, I simply assumed it was a list of “hate” groups and leaders, because “hate” is the SPLC’s all-purpose adjective, and so I wondered why people like Joseph Farah, Frank Gaffney, Pamela Geller, and David Yerushalmi were included. In fact, the list is of “key activists of the radical right.” Being strongly anti-jihadist makes one a “radical” in the SPLC’s eyes.

But again I have to point out the irony of what makes one a “rightist” or a “radical rightist” in the eyes of liberals. It’s true that Gaffney has become increasingly shrill, even hysterical, in his warnings about jihad in recent years. But what has he actually proposed to halt the spread of Islam among us? Zilch. Geller is shrill in her anti-Islamization campaign. But what has she proposed to halt the spread of Islam among us? Zilch. (For evidence of this, see my discussion from February 2010 on Geller’s and Robert Spencer’s Freedom Defense Iniative.) So it’s their tone, more than their substance, that gets them listed as “radical right.”

It’s an interesting list, though quite a few of the names are unfamiliar to me. I’ll reproduce it here. Each name is linked to the SPLC’s article on that person.

Virginia Abernethy
Chuck Baldwin
David Barton
Don Black
Michael Boldin
Michael L. Brown
Kevin J. DeAnna
Tom DeWeese
David Duke
Lou Engle
Joseph Francis Farah
Bryan Fischer
Frank Gaffney
Pamela Geller
Morris L. Gulett
Michael Hill
Alex E. Jones
Cliff Kincaid
Randal Lee Krager
Alex Linder
Kevin MacDonald
Jason “Molotov” Mitchell
Elmer Stewart Rhodes
Kyle Rogers
Malik Zulu Shabazz
Samuel Jared Taylor
James Timothy Turner
Michael Brian Vanderboegh
Pastor John Weaver
David Yerushalmi

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 25, 2012 04:27 PM | Send