Right Wing Death Squad, often abbreviated to RWDS, is a slogan used in the 21st century by far-right Americans. The term was first used in the 1970s to describe Latin American paramilitaries who targeted their left-wing opponents.
Right Wing Death Squad, often abbreviated to RWDS, is a slogan used in the 21st century by far-right Americans. The term was first used in the 1970s to describe Latin American paramilitaries who targeted their left-wing opponents.
The term was first used in the 1970s to describe Latin American paramilitary death squads who targeted left-wing opponents. [1] The death squad dropped the leftists out of helicopters. They were called the "death flights". [2]
From the 2010s onwards, the term was used in the U.S. by far-right extremists. The term, often abbreviated to RWDS is used in memes, [3] in online forums, on clothing, patches, and stickers. [1] The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism attribute the terms' popularity to usage by the American neo-fascist organisation the Proud Boys. The slogan is often accompanied by the words "Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong" [4] and the abbreviation RWDS is used as a hashtag #RWDS. [5]
The slogan was used by attendees of the 2017 Unite the Right rally white supremacist event in Charlottesville, Virginia. [1]
Some groups were created with names resembling RWDS, prompting Facebook to block multiple pages due to their hateful content. [6] [7] A 2019 Facebook group called Right Wing Death Squad was monitored by the FBI due to the violent, anti-semitic, and white supremacist content being posted. [8]
Mauricio Garcia, the perpetrator of the 2023 Allen, Texas outlet mall shooting wore a RWDS patch when he killed eight people. [9] After the shooting, former Proud Boys regional leader Jeremy Bertino [10] spoke of his regret about wearing a Right Wing Death Squad patch. [11]
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