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Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Tyler O'Neal Exposes Southern Poverty Law Center as Corrupt Operation Masquerading as Civil Rights Organization
Tyler O'Neal, senior editor at Daily Signal and author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, breaks down how the SPLC transformed from a legitimate civil rights law firm into what he describes as a fundraising operation that labels mainstream conservative groups as hate organizations. O'Neal discusses the organization's $700 million endowment, mysterious Cayman Island accounts, and its controversial "hate map" that has been linked to multiple incidents of political violence, including the 2012 Family Research Council shooting and the addition of Turning Point USA to their list. The conversation explores the SPLC's business model of stoking fear among elderly liberal donors while maintaining ties to corporations like PayPal, and examines potential legal avenues to hold the organization accountable for what critics call a dangerous blacklisting operation.
From Civil Rights to Cash Cow: The SPLC's Transformation
The Southern Poverty Law Center began as a public interest civil rights law firm representing poor people in the South. The organization initially believed in representing everyone, even taking on reverse racism cases representing white men who had been discriminated against in majority black employment opportunities. However, according to Tyler O'Neal, the organization's trajectory changed when founder Morris Dees realized that going after the Ku Klux Klan generated the most attention and money.
While O'Neal acknowledges that suing Klan groups into bankruptcy represented wins for America, he points to a significant moment in the 1980s when the SPLC's legal team quit en masse. These attorneys had signed up to represent poor people in the South, not to hunt Klan groups. They described the lawsuits involving the Klan as "shooting fish in a barrel" and expressed concern about the SPLC's developing ties with law enforcement.
The Birth of the Controversial Hate Map
Around the year 2000, the SPLC entered what O'Neal calls its third iteration. Having run out of Klan groups and "grand dragons to conquer," the organization started placing mainstream conservative and Christian organizations on their hate map alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. According to the SPLC's framing, this hate map shows the infrastructure upholding white supremacy in the United States of America.
Organizations like the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform found themselves listed on this map. O'Neal explains that being placed on the hate map means the SPLC compares these organizations to the Klan, presenting them as violent forces of hate that need to be monitored by law enforcement and cut off from polite society. The SPLC then takes this hate map to big tech companies, corporations, and the charitable sector, advocating for the blacklisting of listed organizations.
The Family Research Council Shooting and Pattern of Violence
A watershed moment that drew O'Neal's attention to the SPLC occurred in 2012 when a terrorist targeted the Family Research Council in Washington, DC. The attacker used the SPLC hate map to locate the conservative Christian nonprofit, arriving with a semi-automatic pistol and a bag of Chick-fil-A sandwiches. He told the FBI he planned to shoot everyone in the building and smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces.
While the SPLC condemned the attack, they never removed the Family Research Council from their hate map. O'Neal points to this as part of a disturbing pattern. In 2017, a man who had liked the SPLC on Facebook opened fire at congressional baseball game practice, nearly killing Steve Scalise. The SPLC's response to these incidents consistently includes condemnations of political violence, but no substantive action like removing organizations from their controversial list.
Turning Point USA Added to the List
The situation escalated when the SPLC added Turning Point USA to the hate map. O'Neal broke this story after discovering the addition on social media and in the Daily Signal. The placement of the largest conservative grassroots youth organization on a map with chapters of the Klan represented what O'Neal describes as being "so far off the reservation." The timing became even more tragic when Charlie Kirk was murdered, raising questions about whether the SPLC's hate map functions as what O'Neal calls "to some degree a kill list."
The Business Model: Fear and Fundraising
The SPLC operates with over $700 million in their endowment and maintains millions of dollars in Cayman Island accounts offshore, the purpose of which remains unexplained for a nonprofit organization. Their business model involves positioning themselves as the premier force monitoring and combating hate in America, then constantly alerting donors that hate is increasing.
Their donor base traces back to supporters of the George McGovern campaign from 1972, representing Democrats who wanted things to move further left. The organization sends letters warning that the number of hate groups in America has grown dramatically, targeting older liberals who donate out of fear. O'Neal describes it as a scare operation that whips up donors into a frenzy to generate revenue.
Internal Scandals and the 2019 Upheaval
In 2019, the SPLC faced a major internal crisis when co-founder Morris Dees was fired amid allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The president resigned, and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson stepped down from the board. Despite initial coverage in legacy media, the scandal largely disappeared from public view. The organization brought in Michelle Obama's chief of staff to conduct a full investigation, but no results or findings from this investigation have ever been publicly released.
O'Neal also notes that the SPLC was accused of union busting and has faced allegations of racism from its own staff. Lower-level employees, many of whom were non-white, claimed that Dees was bullying them in what they characterized as racist attacks. The irony of a civil rights organization facing credible accusations of internal racism was not lost on critics.
Corporate Ties and the Blacklisting Operation
The SPLC maintains relationships with major corporations and tech platforms like PayPal, using these connections to advocate for the blacklisting of organizations on their hate map. This extends beyond simple criticism into what amounts to interference with business practices, as the SPLC actively works to cut off listed organizations from financial services, social media platforms, and charitable giving networks.
The organization also developed troubling ties to Antifa and on-the-ground violent leftist groups, according to O'Neal. While the full extent of these connections hasn't been proven, the SPLC has hired Antifa-affiliated researchers. O'Neal describes the SPLC as representing an interesting mix of old liberals who have passed the torch to new violent leftists.
Potential Legal Avenues for Accountability
O'Neal discusses several potential approaches to holding the SPLC accountable. Senator Ted Cruz has proposed a bill that would add rioting to the RICO statute, which could open new legal possibilities. Currently, RICO statutes were designed to target the mafia and don't include inciting riots, limiting their application to organizations that may be coordinating with violent groups.
Defamation lawsuits represent another promising avenue. A particularly strong case exists in Georgia involving a group called the Dustin Inman Society. The organization has documentation showing the SPLC is on record stating that the Dustin Inman Society is not a hate group, yet the SPLC added them to the hate map after they registered a lobbyist to oppose a bill the Society supported. O'Neal believes defamation remains one of the strongest legal strategies against the SPLC.
There may also be grounds for lawsuits based on interference with business practices, given the SPLC's active efforts to blacklist organizations from corporate partnerships and financial services. O'Neal suggests that if there was ever a case to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark Supreme Court decision that makes it difficult for public figures to win defamation cases, the SPLC's activities provide the best example.
Kash Patel Severs FBI Ties with SPLC
In breaking news, Kash Patel officially severed ties between the FBI and the SPLC. The announcement suggested Patel may not have been fully aware of the official relationship until comments surfaced on social media. While the tie likely wasn't significantly impacting FBI operations, the existence of any formal relationship between federal law enforcement and an organization with such a controversial track record was considered offensive by critics.
The Path Forward
O'Neal argues that the SPLC needs to do more than simply condemn political violence in press releases. At minimum, they should remove Turning Point USA from the hate map, though he believes the entire map should be scrapped. The organization continues to borrow from its noble past, wearing what O'Neal describes as "the robes of an admirable generation gone by" while operating in ways that bear no resemblance to its original civil rights mission.
Potential investigations could come from the Alabama Attorney General's office, where the SPLC is based, or from federal authorities. The combination of the organization's massive endowment, offshore accounts, internal scandals, and connections to political violence create multiple predicates for legitimate investigations. The question remains whether legal and political will exists to take on an organization that still maintains significant influence in corporate America and maintains the veneer of civil rights advocacy.
