I find that I actually miss the days when the Southern Poverty Law Center mattered. Back in the days when they would identify real racists (but just the ones of a particular political slant) – these were very easy to tag because, well most of them stated it out loud. And then of course there was the bulk of the work of the SPLC, guilt by association and innuendos. But they made solid cases (in their minds), with entire files and many articles to build the case – and just against those of a different political stance, but hey, we knew that was the game.
But that was back in an era where our news media lied to us, but not the in-your-face sort we get now, not images of reporters standing in front of a city block on fire calling what is happening “mostly peaceful”. This was back in a time, and not so long ago mind you, when very few Americans really understood that both political parties were captured. It was an innocent time, the sort where there were people that considered themselves ‘moderates’ than needed to be convinced of things.
Man do I miss the days when you could find a moderate to poke fun at for their ignorance or, oh I don’t know, a Baptist with Bush stickers on his car going to church to hear about God whilst America conducted unnecessary, illegal, and immoral wars overseas. I sort of miss those times, those times of mass ignorance. And boy are we way past that now. Not the ignorance part, we still have that, everybody thinks they are certain they know something now and are happy to Tweet it, it is the perception of innocence I miss.
The SPLC has little real work to do now. Oh sure there is the occasional upstart with the wrong political ideas that looks a little dangerous – that person needs a dossier, just to make sure you know. But for the most part, a Twitter accusation is enough, it is enough for those that used to be moderates and the most radical among us to believe. A person can simply type “yes, well [insert name] was literally saying transphobic, misogynistic and racist stuff so they deserve it” and it literally does not matter if none of that is true – merely saying it matters. Maybe they need to say it three times, I do not know, I do not have a copy of the spell manual, but I do know it just has to be claimed in most cases to be believed by most people.
Give me back the times before social media, the time of blogs and less overtly dishonest media and a time when the biggest fight a guy like me might fight with anyone over politics was with a person that claimed they were conservative but supported every non-moral, authoritarian thing coming along….give me those days back, and I will add to my wish list a return of the relevance of the SPLC…fair?
