Moms for Liberty, the far-right parental group known for protesting at school board meetings, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group” for the first time ever. — msn.com
“Far-right” is an empty phrase assigned to, as far as I can tell, people who do not subscribe to neoliberal orthodoxy and who question U.S. institutions of power, like government and teachers unions.
And the lead paragraph, quoted above, indicates that “protesting at school board meetings,” which is actually a right protected by the Constitution of the United States, will earn you an SPLC designation as a “hate group.”
The SPLC also labeled 11 other “right-wing ‘parents’ rights'” groups as extremist groups.
The use of quotes in the story is noteworthy. The author has scare-quoted “parents’ rights” and labeled the parents’ rights groups en masse as right-wing, as though the idea that parents have rights is some kind of a fringe concept that most people reject.
“Hate group” is also scare-quoted, as though it doesn’t have any real meaning (it doesn’t) but in this particular case seems to mean a group that does not believe, as the SPLC obviously does, that the opinions of the government, teachers unions and school boards regarding racial politics and gender ideology are so obviously correct and so profoundly enlightened that only hate or bigotry can explain others’ holding different beliefs.
The Department of Justice issued a memo in 2021 urging the investigation of concerned parents, backtracked on it, but did not respond to a request for comment regarding ties between the administration and the SPLC.