# The SPLC Victim Support Group **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 24, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455 "2019-03-24T14:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/21 "2019-03-24T16:34:53Z")
There’s a whole long thread about the SPLC already. The only reason the OP created a new thread was to troll the libs. Don’t give him the satisfaction. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/22 "2019-03-24T16:35:11Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Post 6 > > The New Yorker article plainly states the organization was a con. Obvious troll is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/23 "2019-03-24T16:35:54Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Obvious troll is obvious. Beat you to it my one minute. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/24 "2019-03-24T16:35:54Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Anger. Contempt. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/25 "2019-03-24T16:48:54Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I have no idea why you are rambling about Nixon and Republicans. I’m talking about scams, cons, and hoodwinks. Like I said… 🙂 And it is not my problem that you show all how dense you are, ‘please proceed Governor’… ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/26 "2019-03-24T16:49:00Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Fuck off, **Will**. This was, verbatim, to be my response, but I decided he didn’t even merit that. What an incredibly sad, trifling human being. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/27 "2019-03-25T01:50:29Z")
I just wanted to say that I came into this thread thinking it might have something to do with expressing support for the **actual** victims of the SPLC misconduct: namely, the women and minorities within the organization who were systematically harassed and discriminated against. But what I find is that the OP is callously using their victimization as a pretext for mocking people who weren’t victimized by the SPLC at all, except in the trivial sense of having too much of their donations spent on overhead and marketing rather than the organization’s actual mission. Yes, the OP should fuck off with that bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/28 "2019-03-25T02:58:17Z")
The SLPV is shaken to its core 48 hours ago and **WillFarnaby** can’t wait to crow about it. Meanwhile, the Confederacy fell a century and a half ago and **WillFarnaby** still can’t get over it. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/29 "2019-03-25T11:02:55Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I just wanted to say that I came into this thread thinking it might have something to do with expressing support for the **actual** victims of the SPLC misconduct: namely, the women and minorities within the organization who were systematically harassed and discriminated against. > > But what I find is that the OP is callously using their victimization as a pretext for mocking people who weren’t victimized by the SPLC at all, except in the trivial sense of having too much of their donations spent on overhead and marketing rather than the organization’s actual mission. > > Yes, the OP should fuck off with that bullshit. According to the piece I linked to, the former SPLCer listed those victims that were bilked out of money among other victims. Post 6 ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/30 "2019-03-25T11:05:33Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > The SLPV is shaken to its core 48 hours ago and **WillFarnaby** can’t wait to crow about it. > > Meanwhile, the Confederacy fell a century and a half ago and **WillFarnaby** still can’t get over it. ?? I guess this makes sense if you can’t comprehend nuanced positions on topics outside crony military contracts. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/31 "2019-03-25T11:15:09Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > One time years ago I gave a lady $5 on the street after a sob story. She was out there hours later. My regards to your mother. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/32 "2019-03-25T11:38:54Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > **WillF** , what organizations have you donated money to? He started a GoFuckMyself page and donated to that. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/33 "2019-03-25T12:50:40Z")
I have contributed to the SPLC, and sure, I would have been a good deal less likely to do so if I knew the extent to which they were rolling in the dough. Besides that, they were to some extent picking and choosing their fights in terms of their popular (i.e. fundraising) appeal. That’s the extent of it. The SPLC was still doing good work, but maybe not as good as we thought, and certainly could have done a lot more, given their resources. This isn’t at all like the Madoff con. Nobody’s investing their life savings in the SPLC, and winding up bankrupt. People generally don’t give money to charity that they need to pay the rent or put supper on the table. The most you can say is that the money that people like me contributed to the SPLC might’ve helped out a more deserving charity instead, or might’ve paid for a few restaurant meals instead. So I’m not feeling particularly distraught this morning. More like “you live, you learn.” Sorry to disappoint you, **Will**. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/34 "2019-03-25T13:03:52Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “The work could be meaningful and gratifying. But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.“ > > “We were working with a group of dedicated and talented people, fighting all kinds of good fights, making life miserable for the bad guys. And yet, all the time, dark shadows hung over everything: the racial and gender disparities, the whispers about sexual harassment, the abuses that stemmed from the top-down management, and the guilt you couldn’t help feeling about the legions of donors who believed that their money was being used, faithfully and well, to do the Lord’s work in the heart of Dixie. We were part of the con, and we knew it.” That critique centers around lack of staff diversity, alleged abuse of female employees and targeting of relatively weak and insignificant bogeymen in order to keep the donations rolling in. Your selected quote however indicates the SPLC _was_ taking on worthy causes and doing good at the same time. So, a flawed organization (their recent “enemies” lists struck me as off base in some respects) but hardly a Madoffian scam. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/35 "2019-03-25T13:14:45Z")
[http://m.nautil.us/blog/-why-doing-good-makes-it-easier-to-be-bad](http://m.nautil.us/blog/-why-doing-good-makes-it-easier-to-be-bad) ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/36 "2019-03-25T14:44:14Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > [http://m.nautil.us/blog/-why-doing-good-makes-it-easier-to-be-bad](http://m.nautil.us/blog/-why-doing-good-makes-it-easier-to-be-bad) Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? I believe there’s a lot of rot in the human rights industry, because it can easily shield itself from scrutiny on the basis that they are the Good Guys ™; so it attracts a certain type of people who are kind of awful but want to be seen as saints, and I do mean saints, see Mother Theresa as an example. I know of a case here in Thailand, an NGO that advocates for Burmese workers that waxes poetically about Human Rights and the Rule of Law while some of its members are part of the group that instigated and carried out the [Rohingya ethnic cleansing campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%93present_Rohingya_genocide_in_Myanmar) not long ago. These things are left to fester, in part, because bringing them to light would hurt the overall cause of pro Human Rights work, at least that’s what I think the rationale is; but leaving bad people to do the Good Work for the benefit of keeping up the appearances doesn’t seem to be a good strategy Most importantly, as in the SPLC case, the person running the show clearly treated the position as a money making business, with the commodity being the struggle against bigotry, racism and the like, more of that means more profits so there’s an incentive to not fix the problems but to keep them going for as long as possible. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/37 "2019-03-25T14:50:45Z")
Yes that’s why rackets like representative democracy and the mafia are successful. They do things that on the surface are good like handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile it’s extortion and murder that backs it all up. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/38 "2019-03-25T15:01:24Z")
Well, enough about the Trump administration… 🙂 Seriously though, at the SPLC they tossed out the leadership for that corruption, no such luck in other places. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/39 "2019-03-25T15:14:55Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Yes that’s why rackets like representative democracy and the mafia are successful. They do things that on the surface are good like handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile it’s extortion and murder that backs it all up. Do you have any insight on how to deal with squirrels? CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455/40 "2019-03-25T15:22:55Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Yes that’s why rackets like representative democracy and the mafia are successful. They do things that on the surface are good like handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile it’s extortion and murder that backs it all up. You’re starting to sound like [Dennis the Peasant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKIyVnoZDdQ). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-splc-victim-support-group/831455.md?page=3)