Thread by @Hatewatch

At the #Portland rally today, Proud Boy and close associate of Joey Gibson Tusitala “Tiny” Toese is wearing a T-shirt once sold by a hate group.

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1025801911079845888

The front of Tiny's shirt reads "PINOCHET DID NOTHING WRONG!" and on the sleeve it reads "RWDS," which stands for Right Wing Death Squads.

https://twitter.com/itsmikebivins/status/1025802930224431104

RWDS was a clothing company that was once the most popular white nationalist apparel outlet. The company designed and sold clothing based on numerous racist "alt-right" memes.

RWDS rebranded in 2017 to Western Outlands Supply Company, which the SPLC listed as a white nationalist hate group. It’s now defunct. splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…

As for the "Right Wing Death Squads" meme, it started firmly in the racist and antisemitic "alt-right."

The white nationalist hate group The Right Stuff helped popularize the "RWDS" meme. TRS close every episode of their flagship podcast with the song "Adios Mi General"

The song is a tribute to Augusto Pinochet, the brutal Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990. He is revered on the far-right for his death squads that targeted left-wing opponents of his regime, among others.

Pinochet's regime also carried out "death flights" — executions by dropping victims out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean.

It's been a very popular meme on the far-right. Here's an image of neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally wearing a T-shirt with the helicopter image.

Patriot Prayer has repeatedly tried to separate itself from the racist alt-right. That Tiny and other supporters are wearing Right Wing Death Squad memes raises questions again about the group’s ideological orientation.