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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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The SPLC has been federally indicted on six counts of wire fraud, four counts of false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. And the charges were filed in the Middle District of Alabama. 14-page indictment PDF here.

In brief, the indictment alleges that the SPLC raised money under false pretenses by claiming to fight right-wing extremism, instead funding extremist informants with roughly $3 million dollars of donor money. The informants included members of the KKK and an organizer of the infamous Charlottesville unite the right fiasco. They allegedly did this using illegal means, creating fictitious cutouts and lying to banks to open phony bank accounts to obscure the flow of funds from the SPLC to their informants.

I can't help but feel some schadenfreude here - "no one is above the law" also applies to left-wing NGOs who think they can larp as spies. They even named one of their cutouts Center Investigative Agency... It seems like they flew very close to the sun thinking that their brand and political affiliation would shield them from scrutiny. Project Veritas got a lot more heat for doing a lot less.

From a layman's perspective the indictment seems pretty compelling but I'd be curious to hear what the legal commentators here think. Of course this is only one side of the argument, but those statements to the bank in particular seem quite incriminating. Also, what exactly would be the consequences for the SPLC if the DOJ succeeds on some or all counts?

"Dangerous right wing hate groups" are so thin on the ground they literally can't hold a meeting without funding from the Deep State funneled through NGO cutouts like the SPLC. I'm reminded of the tale of the anarchist newspaper in which every one of the dozens of editors, employees and writers was an intelligence agent or informant for a different government. "Anarchy" groups were a whole thing for intelligence services to conceal their doings back in the early 20th century. If you've heard of a "white supremacist", odds are good he's being promoted by teh glowies.

If you've heard of a "white supremacist", odds are good he's being promoted by teh glowies.

Whether that's true or not, I don't think it applies in this case, since the SPLC's definition of "white supremacist" is probably so broad that it certainly includes large numbers of people who are not glowies.

Yeah, I had an idea a few years back of starting a "militia group," charging each recruit a few thousand dollars, and having them meet every weekend to crawl around in the mud and do jumping jacks.

This should add credence to the belief that e.g. the groypers are "controlled opposition". But it likely won't; the lesson of ECHELON, AT&T Room 641A, and the Snowden revelations is that conspiracy theories are never credible even when there's precedent.

The only ways I can think of in which groypers help any elite groups is that they stir infighting among right-wingers and make it easier for some groups to raise money under the guise of fighting extremism.

However, both of those things could also be explained by the simpler theory that the groypers are genuine in their political beliefs, so I don't know why the theory that they are controlled opposition would be more credible.

I'm reminded of the tale of the anarchist newspaper in which every one of the dozens of editors, employees and writers was an intelligence agent or informant for a different government.

The Man Who Was Thursday?