Use Google. It's really not that hard. Gavin McInnes sued the SPLC because their wrongful designation had caused measurable harm to his income. This is well-documented and still going through the courts. Now it's sort of less relevant considering the fact that he stepped down, but groups like the SPLC should still be held accountable for branding people with a scarlet letter and destroying their commercial enterprises. A quick reminder that the same organisation also features Ben Shapiro prominently in their "Hatewatch" column - Ben Shapiro is Jewish. They haven't quite gone the full monty with him by dedicating a whole article to his organisation, the Daily Wire, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did eventually.
Well isn't that just sad, you dodged the question.
So here's that lawsuit
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Lawsuit against the SPLC
Although McInnes cut ties with the Proud Boys publicly in November 2018, stepping down as chairman,[18][68] in February 2019 he filed suit against the Southern Poverty Law Center over their designation of the Proud Boys as a "general hate" group. The defamation suit was filed in federal court in Alabama. In the papers filed, McInnes claimed that the hate group designation is false and motivated by fund-raising concerns, and that his career has been damaged by it. He claimed that SPLC contributed to his or the Proud Boys' being "deplatformed" by Twitter, PayPal, Mailchimp, and iTunes.[81][82]
The SPLC says on its website that "McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term 'alt-right' while espousing some of its central tenets," and that the group's "rank-and-file [members] and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville."[17][82] In response to the suit, Richard Cohen, the president of SPLC, wrote "Gavin McInnes has a history of making inflammatory statements about Muslims, women, and the transgender community. The fact that he's upset with SPLC tells us that we're doing our job exposing hate and extremism."
So he stepped down, then sued the law center, over the group he used to be in...
Now isn't that just a strange?
Surely from a group he stepped down he wouldn't have to defend it. But why did he step down?
Well, let's go to logic. but in a moment.
So who should I trust?
The person who is trying to rebrand themselves even their their actives and rhetoric are clearly white supremacist?
Or you the moderator, trying to state that proudboys are not white supremacist at all, and trying to state they are something else.
Or come to the logical conclusion that they are white supremacist, given all the actives they have had in the past. And him (thefounder) trying to argue that he isn't a hate group in a organization he had stepped down from, and then suing over it.
It's not a good look to be identified as a hate group. Makes your messaging and branding less effective when people point it it out.
Which would explain him stepping down. It's an ass cover. He knows that proud boys are actually white supremacist. And still identifies with them. But to make legality less complicated, he stepped down, in attempt to save face.