In case you missed it, the Southern Poverty Law Center added Turning Points USA to its “hate map.” Yes, the same map that includes neo-Nazi cells and Klan chapters.
This isn’t satire.
In the SPLC’s “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, released with the 2024 version of the “hate map,” the SPLC describes Turning Point USA as “a well-funded, hard-right organization with links to Southern Poverty Law Center-identified hard-right extremists and a tremendous amount of influence in conservative politics.”
Translation: If you question government power or oppose progressive ideology, the SPLC now considers you hateful.
Let’s remember who we’re talking about. TPUSA is one of the biggest conservative youth organizations in the country. It has chapters on campuses nationwide and advocates for limited government, free markets, and constitutional rights. But none of that matters:
“Turning Point USA’s primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists,” SPLC argued. “TPUSA and its spokespeople often warn their audience that their children, wives, religion, way of life and they themselves are under attack by various constructed enemies. TPUSA exploits complicated feelings of insecurity and anxiety to manufacture rage and mobilize support to revive and maintain a white-dominated, male supremacist, Christian social order.”
Notice what’s missing? Any actual violence, incitement, or criminal activity. What the SPLC is condemning is wrongthink.
The SPLC went on to accuse TPUSA of positioning Christianity as “superior and dominant” while “orchestrating myths of religious persecution.” The group said that TPUSA uses this framing to “justify its extreme, authoritarian vision for the country that threatens the foundation of our democracy.”
This is a political hit job dressed up in civil rights language. The SPLC knows what these labels do: they get you deplatformed, demonetized, and banned. That’s the point.
While the SPLC claims these groups demonize LGBTQ people, the groups claim the SPLC targets them because they oppose its agenda on political issues.
Over at The Daily Signal, they are not wrong. The SPLC has a long list of mistruths and inaccurate “Hate Watch” studies, which have led to multiple apologies and defamation lawsuits. The SPLC’s “hate map” has long been a blacklist, not a watchdog report. We here at Legal Insurrection have covered this blacklisting extensively:
Bottom line: this isn’t about hate. It’s about power. The SPLC is making it clear—oppose their politics, and they’ll try to erase you.
UPDATE: Charlie Kirk has responded to the SPLC:
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