League of the South

[[File:Southern Nationalist flag.svg|thumb|165px|What happens when you apply white-out to the [[Confederate flag|Confederate battle flag]].]]
{{altright}}
{{cquote|[I]n the heart of every true Southerner, [[Fun:Jesusland|a reverence for God resides]] that does not exist in other areas of the nation.|||Arkansas League of the South<ref>[http://www.arkansaslos.org/ Arkansas League of the South].</ref>}}
The '''League of the South''' is a [[Neo-Confederate]], [[white supremacist]], [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]], [[Antisemitism|Anti-Semitic]], [[Islamophobic]], and [[xenophobia|Anti-immigrant]] organization (the former two views held by the League's leader [[wp:Michael Hill (activist)|Michael Hill]]) founded to protect and promote "[[WASP|Anglo-Celtic]]" [[racism|Southern culture]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101215172716/http://dixienet.org/rights/corebeliefs.shtml League of the South Core Belief Statement]. DixieNet.Org.</ref> Invocations of a [[appeal to tradition|centuries-old agrarian culture]] aside,<ref>Franklin Sanders. [http://www.freetennessee.org/custpage.cfm/frm/46580/sec_id/46580 The South As It Was]. FreeTennessee.org.</ref> the League itself is fairly young, established in 1994.<ref name=faq>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101215170845/http://dixienet.org/rights/faq.shtml Frequently Asked Questions About the League of the South]. DixieNet.Org.</ref> It, naturally, promotes the [[Lost Cause of the South]] and advocates that Southern states secede from the [[United States|Union]]. The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] classifies them as a hate group.<ref>[http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/league-of-the-south League of the South]. Southern Poverty Law Center.</ref>

The League of the South originally began as a haven for ostensibly respectable [[paleoconservatism|paleoconservative]] [[academic]]s and intellectuals to express their [[racism]] and revulsion of [[multiculturalism]]. Later, the organization attracted a more vulgar form of racist that wasn't interested in using pseudointellectualism and [[pseudohistory]] to lend their racism respectability, eventually leading to an exodus of the educated from the organization.<ref>[http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2001/winter/neo-confederates League of the South Loses Members and Momentum]. ''Intelligence Report''. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2001.</ref> The group closest to the League's original vision is probably the [[Chronicles (magazine)|Rockford Institute]], which houses several League members and ex-members.

Currently, the League is the go-to organization for [[racism|racists]] to openly praise [[slavery]]<ref>[http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/fall/league-of-the-south-president-whites-en League of the South President: Whites Endowed with Divine 'Superiority']. ''Intelligence Report''. Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2012.</ref> and fret about the decay of white culture. Officially, they don't consider themselves racist because "racist" is a [[Communism|communist]] word.<ref>{{refquote|The term 'racism' has its origins in Communism and that movement's sordid attempt to undermine Western Christendom.}} —League of the South Board of Directors. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101215172817/http://dixienet.org/rights/statementonracism.shtml League of the South Statement on "Racism"]. DixieNet.Org. 2012 July 21.</ref> In a bizarre attempt to differentiate Southern culture from American culture and emphasize the former's "Anglo-Celtic heritage," their published material insists on using [[British English]] spellings.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101215170217/http://dixienet.org/rights/verbal.shtml A Word about Traditional Southern Orthography]. DixieNet.Org.</ref>

== Online content ==

The articles hosted by the League and its regional chapters are chock full of [[pseudohistory]], [[denialism]], and remarkably dumb ideas; it seems that desperation to justify a Southern secession leads to amazingly bad arguments. Independent Southern states would have per capita [[GDP]] comparable to South Korea!<ref>Cole Cleburne. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130108101109/http://dixienet.org/rights/2012/gdp-per-capita-comparisons.php Southern State GDP per-capita Comparisons with Independent Nations]. DixieNet.Org. 2012.</ref><ref group=note>This completely ignores the "government meddling" that props up their economies.</ref> The South is like the Hobbits in the war against Sauron in ''Lord of the Rings''!<ref>Sara Hill. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101215173203/http://dixienet.org/rights/southernpatriot/spnovdec07.pdf The South and the Shire]. ''Southern Patriot'' magazine, page 2. Nov-Dec 2007.</ref> Secession is the only way for the South to avoid the [[Islam|Muslim]] invasion!<ref>Yosemite Sam. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20101215173203/http://dixienet.org/rights/southernpatriot/spnovdec07.pdf This Is Not Your Father’s America]." ''Southern Patriot'' magazine, page 4. Nov-Dec 2007.</ref> The South supplies most of America's troops, making it a military powerhouse!<ref>Mike Tuggle. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101215173203/http://dixienet.org/rights/southernpatriot/spnovdec07.pdf Two Soldiers]. ''Southern Patriot'' magazine, page 5. Nov-Dec 2007.</ref><ref group=note>While it's true that enlisted soldiers are disproportionately from the South, that's because the military actively [http://web.archive.org/web/20110324060605/http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/12/08/you_can_go_strangle_yourself_with_that_yellow_ribbon targets the poor for recruitment] — they're less likely to say no to the offered paycheck. This is particularly true in rural communities, where joining the military is often the only accessible career path out of town. It has nothing to do with patriotism or manliness; the South just has ''a lot'' of poor people.</ref>

== Regional branches ==

The League has regional chapters located in over seventeen states.<ref name=chapters>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101215170240/http://dixienet.org/rights/statechapters.shtml LS State Chapters]. DixieNet.Org.</ref> The Missouri chapter also represents Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin (presumably those states don't have enough racists to get their own chapter).<ref name=chapters/>

While officially the League wants an "independent Southern republic",<ref>{{refquote|The League of the South believes that the answer to these problems is a free and independent Southern republic.}} —[https://arkansasleagueofthesouth.com/ About the Arkansas League of the South]. Arkansas League of the South.</ref> they aren't necessarily interested in recreating the Confederacy; their own websites occasionally discuss secession in terms of individual states becoming individual nations.<ref>Ed Wolfe. [http://georgials.org/2012/free_georgia.php A Free, Sovereign and Independent Georgia]. Georgia League of the South. 2012.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121227130708/http://dixienet.org/rights/2012/free_louisiana.php Louisiana Could Be an Independent Country]. DixieNet.Org. 2012.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121227130652/http://dixienet.org/rights/2012/free_alabama.php Alabama As Its Own Independent Republic]. DixieNet.Org. 2012.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120817005021/http://dixienet.org/rights/states/2012_free_florida.php Florida As Its Own Nation]. DixieNet.Org. 2012.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120808195837/http://dixienet.org/rights/states/2012_free_texas.php Why Texas would be better off as a free republic.] DixieNet.Org. 2012.</ref> Of course, in a confederacy, sovereignty resides with the constituent states (which is part of why the {{wpl|Articles of Confederation}} failed so hard), so a collection of independent Southern states wouldn't be ''that'' different, politically, from a confederacy of some sort.

The Alabama branch recently had a billboard they put up saying "secede" taken down by the advertising company in control after complaints.<ref>Mike Cason. [http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/05/league_of_south_president_want.html League of South president wants 'Secede' billboard restored on I-85 in Montgomery]. AL.com. 2014 May 19.</ref> [[Red-baiting|The group made claims of]] "[[Joseph Stalin|Stalinism]]", seemingly unaware that Stalin's policy on secessionists was [[Holodomor|mass murder]] rather than billboard removal.

==Antisemitism==
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League founder Michael Hill has apparently a lot of beef with [[Jews|The Joos]]. He's written a number of nutty articles: "Trump on history's darkest hour" (concerning the [[Holocaust]] and [[Jesus Christ]]), "Holodomor and the Bitter Harvest" (an article on the Holodomor), "Max Boot's Brotherhood of Man" (focusing on, you guessed it, the Jews), and "What Was World War II Really About" (a historical revisionist article on [[World War II]]), where he expresses his frustrations and anger toward the Jews, blaming them for communism, killing Jesus, and getting America and Britain into WWII (damn those Japanese Jews, anyway!). This is pretty ironic because Hill seems to be unaware (or purposefully ignorant) of the fact that thousands of Jews (with estimates as low as 3,000 to 3,500 or as high as 10,000 to 12,000) fought for the Confederacy with the likes of Abraham Meyers as well as Moses Jacob Ezekiel and some Southern politicians such as Judah P. Benjamin and David Levy Yulee being of Jewish descent. Hill seems to not care about them at all.

== See also ==

*[[Council of Conservative Citizens]]
*[[Thomas DiLorenzo]]
*''[[Chronicles (magazine)|Chronicles]]''
*[[Unite the Right]]
*[[Fort Pillow Massacre]]

== External links ==

*[http://leagueofthesouth.com/ Their hideous, hideous webshite]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170905073226/http://dixienet.org/index.php Their old hideous, hideous webshite]

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

[[Category:Antisemitism]]
[[Category:Denialist organizations]]
[[Category:Fascism]]
[[Category:Hate groups]]
[[Category:Islamophobia]]
[[Category:Neo-Nazism]]
[[Category:Paleoconservatism]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory promoters]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:Slavery apologists]]
[[Category:White supremacy]]

Categories: Antisemitism, Denialist organizations, Fascism, Hate groups, Islamophobia, Neo-Nazism, Paleoconservatism, Pseudohistory promoters, Racism, Slavery, Slavery apologists, White supremacy