Did SPLC just make it dangerous to have a ‘conservative’ bumper sticker?

The Southern Poverty Law Center has produced a video, “’Sovereign Citizens’ and Law Enforcement: Understanding the Threat,” warning police that traffic stops involving “right wing” citizens could end up as deadly encounters. I’ve embedded it in the sidebar video player. Go ahead and watch it before reading on.

There’s no question the officers were murdered. The question is, do we blame an ideology or the individuals who committed the act? And if the former is a factor, what responsible actions have the finger-pointers taken to limit the blame to a narrow spectrum of violence initiation advocates—as opposed to conflating their beliefs and actions with those of the broader liberty movement?

With SPLC, the answer is obvious, and the connect-the-dots exploitation/obfuscation kicks into gear once retired ATF Special Agent in Charge James Cavanaugh begins his narration, as the “sovereign citizen” incident transitions seamlessly to the Oklahoma City bombing to Ruby Ridge to Waco.

This fits nicely with a strategy we’ve seen unfolding to portray Constitutionalists as anti-government “hatriots.” We’ve seen SPLC do this ad nauseum with Oath Keepers and gun rights advocates . And what’s chilling is, we’ve seen the Department of Homeland Security pick up on their talking points and we’ve seen them implemented by federal and local law enforcement agencies.

What this video does is intentionally widens the “us vs. them” divide between citizens and police, heightens the paranoia, and makes the most innocuous of encounters much more dangerous. Now, thanks to SPLC, something as simple as having a political bumper sticker on your car, supposedly protected speech, takes a heightened alert situation and urges police to view non-leftist political sentiment as a potentially lethal personal threat. Because with all the conflation, what message will be enough to trigger a protective reaction?

“I am an American National”? “Death to the New World Order”?

How about “Oath Keepers”? Or “III”? Or “We are everywhere’?

How about “I’m the NRA”? Or “Chose Life”?

The ironic thing is, the killers’ car in the SPLC video had no bumper sticker, so the warnings wouldn’t have applied in this case.

No, actually, the ironic thing here is, at the time of the shootings, this is what was reported about the killers:

They were part of the Aryan Nation back in the 90s…

The SPLC itself describes Aryan Nations ideology as “Neo-Nazi.”

Nazi’s are hardly “anti-government.” They like ‘em strong, national and socialist. “Nazi” was adapted from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

So we’re talking about killers with demonstrable sympathies to…left wing extremism? No doubt the socialists try to disaffiliate themselves from this embarrassing reality, claiming Hitler was really…whatever the hell lie they want to make up to justify their slavish faith to a jackbooted central government. I refer you to “Hitler and the Socialist Dream” by George Watson. Read the whole thing and bookmark it for future reference, but here’s his conclusion in a nutshell:

It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical.

Perhaps not. But the title “progressive” the collectivist hate-mongers apply to themselves sure is.

As hypocritical as making accusations of extremism and hate against those who believe all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…and using a propaganda campaign aimed at provoking a law enforcement response to advance that agenda.

Tomorrow: Barring anything pushing it to the back burner, let’s take a look at “Waco Jim” Cavanaugh.

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