The philosopher Eric Hoffer famously said: “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

That’s the sad story of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which 50 years ago helped bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan and sued neo-Nazi groups threatening violence.

But over time, the group has morphed into a fund-raising machine run by progressive grifters who spend much of their time smearing mainstream conservative groups. Its war chest was last reported as north of $800 million.

This week, the Justice Department indicted SPLC on federal charges of fraud, which include allegedly misleading donors and lying to financial institutions by paying leaders and members of violent extremist groups millions of dollars to act as informants and to spread hateful propaganda.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” alleges Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

One example: A leader of the infamous 2017 white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Va. was paid $270,000 by SPLC to attend “the event at the direction of SPLC…made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC, and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.”

The rally degenerated into violence and was cited by Joe Biden as the moral reason for his decision to run for president in 2020. But it may well have been in part a manufactured event.

SPLC will have its day in court to defend itself, but there is more than enough evidence for the “progressive” foundations that have funded it for decades to withdraw their support and for the IRS to rescind its nonprofit status.