The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has published yet another smear article about me, the readers of SurvivalBlog, and the American Redoubt movement. At the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” web page, an article titled “Far-right survivalist and icon of ‘Patriot’ movement predicts religious civil war” was published on January 3, 2019. This latest SPLC attack piece begins:
“The framer of a far-right survivalist movement in the Pacific Northwest rang in the new year by warning of religious civil war. James Wesley, Rawles, (sic) a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and self-described religious separatist who once called Islam a “religion of evil and death,” thinks a “war of world views” may come as early as 2020. And he’s urging his readers to strategically relocate inland to red states.”
By cleverly mixing facts, innuendo, and guilt by association, the SPLC’s Hatewatch editors have repeatedly smeared JWR, SurvivalBlog, and the American Redoubt political migration movement. This is just the latest in their long string of baseless attacks. They published similar smear pieces in 2011, and 2013. Their defaming accusations were also parroted by others on several occasions, most notably in 2017. This modus operandi perfectly matches what Prager University warned about, in their video: The “Anti-Hate” Group That Is a Hate Group.
Crank Up the Sinister to 11
Look closely at the layout of the SPLC’s latest attack piece, The portrait photo of me that they used is blown up and tightly-cropped. It has enhanced contrast, a darkening screen cast over the bottom half (to make me look like I have a Tricky Dick Nixon 10-o’clock shadow), and even darker shading added around my eyes. I can only conclude that this was to make me look sinister.