SPLC Changes Number of ‘Radical Traditional Catholic Hate Groups’ in Latest ‘Hate Map’ After FBI Backlash
You may have heard that, early last year, the FBI issued a memo targeting Catholics—specifically “radical traditional Catholics”—that relied on the work of the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI rushed to rescind the memo on Catholics after a whistleblower published it and The Daily Signal demanded answers. This week, the SPLC released its annual list of “hate groups” and the “radical traditional Catholic” category remains. The SPLC releases a list of “hate groups” and “antigovernment extremist groups” each year, putting the listed organizations on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. As I explained in my book “Making Hate Pay,” the list has two purposes: It’s a scam to terrify donors into ponying up cash and it acts as a defamation tool, smearing the SPLC’s political and ideological opponents. This year, the SPLC claimed to have “documented the highest number of active anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist groups we have ever recorded.” The topline number of 1,430 hate and antigovernment groups marks a record for the “hate map,” which began including antigovernment groups in last year’s map (covering 2022).
The report accompanying the “hate map” stretches to 72 pages, but it only once explains the “radical traditional Catholic hate group” label. “For ‘radical traditionalist’ Catholics, antisemitism is an inextricable part of their theology,” the report states. “They subscribe to an ideology that is rejected by the Vatican and some 70 million mainstream American Catholics.”
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