Letter: Check the source for ‘extremist’ label

Graphic by Lori Deaton

[Regarding “Exposure to Darkness: School Library Book Bans Come to Buncombe,” April 3, Xpress:]

When Mr. Greg Parlier or anyone else uses the Southern Poverty Law Center as a source for appraisal of any group to any degree right of center, they forfeit credibility. (This opinion is so widely held and so demonstrable that one wonders why a journalist hasn’t enough perception or self-regard to avoid using SPLC as a reference. Surely other sources or none at all — relying on a wide variety of news sources — would be a wiser choice.)

The SPLC labels most conservative groups, usually erroneously, as a “hate” or “extremist” group. It is itself one of the country’s leading bona fide hate and extremist groups.

The Moms for Liberty group, by today’s definitions, is certainly conservative in trying to protect young children from sex-related matters (many quite extreme) until they are more mature in their abilities to sort out reasonable choices, and they deal with those questions responsibly. It is risible for Asheville schools to determine, categorically, that school officials are better able to make those judgments than parents.

—Michael Childs
Vance Elementary School alumnus
Charlotte

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8 thoughts on “Letter: Check the source for ‘extremist’ label

  1. SpareChange

    One does not need to listen to the SPLC, or resort to language like “extremist” (no matter how apt) to know what Moms For Liberty (M4L) is all about. One need only do a search for articles and reports from sources as wide ranging as the Wall Street Journal, Blomberg, The Hill, CBS/60 Minutes, etc. to see that in the 3 1/2 short years of their existence, they have consistently failed their own morality and ethics tests. Fortunately they have already peaked in whatever influence and intimidation they were able to muster and are now on the wane, as more and more of their leaders and chapters lose credibility and support due to their all too evident and widely reported “activism.”

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    • Michael Childs

      I welcome SpareChange’s suggestion to look to sources beyond the SPLC for authority because SPLC is a hate-filled extremist group whose views are worthless. Reputable sources such as Mountain Express should not use or cite SPLC in assessing conservatives IF they value their own credibility and integrity.

      • SpareChange

        People should always consult multiple sources whenever possible. Of course my point was not that SPLC should not be one of those sources, but rather that by consulting a wide range of sources (including many very mainstream and conservative ones) , the agenda, the track record, and the growing number of instances of moral, ethical, and political hypocrisy of M4L, will be made abundantly clear, and will be found to be in line with much of what SPLC reports – whether or not one chooses to use words like “extremist” in describing them. In other words, their actions speak for themselves. I would also be reluctant to call them “conservative,” given that the censorship and bigotry some chapters and leaders have advocated, goes against core conservative and libertarian principles as traditionally understood.

        • Michael Childs

          We understand your Progressive views, as you do my conservative ones. I wouldn’t consider hateful SPLC’s views, for good reasons, on a bet, which is why I, using my real name, encourage ME and Parlier to look further, to guard their credibility and integrity. Best of luck to you and Mountain Express as I exit this exchange for good.

  2. luther blissett

    Moms For Liberty is a lavishly funded “grassroots” organization made up of the very worst people in your neighborhood. No, even worse than the people in charge of your HOA.

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  3. Enlightened Enigma

    SPLC has also been called out as the HATE GROUP that THEY are as well ! We all should do this whenever we see their acronym.

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