WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF THE TERM?
The “RWDS” acronym is one of countless shorthand terms used by extremists. Others include “RaHoWa,” short for “racial holy war,” and “
1488,” an alphabet-driven code combining references to a white nationalist slogan and Adolf Hitler.
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The term “Right Wing Death Squad” originally emerged in the 1970s and ’80s to describe Central and South American paramilitary groups created to support right-wing governments and dictatorships and oppose perceived enemies on the left, said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
It reemerged in the 2010s among right-wing groups who use it on stickers, patches and in online forums. Other far-right gear and online memes specifically glorify Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the brutal Chilean military dictator whose death squads killed thousands of political opponents.
“It essentially became a phrase that was co-opted to demonstrate opposition to the left more broadly by right-wing extremists,” Segal said.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the
Proud Boys, the neo-fascist group of self-described “Western chauvinists,” are largely responsible for injecting “RWDS” into the far-right vernacular.
The group has sold patches and T-shirts adorned with the acronym and celebrating Pinochet’s death squads. Proud Boys have been photographed wearing “RWDS” patches at rallies and wearing T-shirts that read, “Pinochet did nothing wrong.”.... (article continues)