It can mean more than one thing, depending on who is using it and how they are doing so. It can mean death to the nation/government/idea and require killing no one. It can also mean someone wants many Americans to die. No one, aside from you, is suggesting it can only mean one of those things.

And yes, the latter meaning makes it a provocative phrase to use that will sometimes be construed as a call to violence regardless of actual intent, just as "I am standing by" is fraught with the same problems.

This isn't complicated.

The Proud Boys certainly aren't irrelevant, and that wasn't their slogan, the phrase was coined by Trump himself when asked about them in a debate. That phrase has no meaning outside of that context, so of course it will be linked to them, and I'm sure it was meant to be.

Regarding "death to America", maybe some people would use it and intend on only peaceful change, but I would imagine the number meaning that would be extremely small. I don't know in what context that was said in the thread, and I'm not planning to read the whole thing to figure it out.
But I'm sure that isn't any mainstream 'left' opinion of the phrase, and I would consider anyone in the US chanting that phrase to be an extremist.

Who exactly has been using this phrase anyway? A lot of privileged young people living off the wealth of their capitalist parents? Most of whom will be full participants of the system they claim to hate within 15 years or so. Just like the protest class of the late 60s to early 70s became the yuppies of the 80s.

These are great days we're livin, bros.

This is what drives me insane about all this whataboutism. No matter how much people try to will it into existence because they are on the side of people who have actually committed atrocities, there is no such thing as left wing terrorism in the United States

There’s a lot of young people with angst who want to post for clicks on Instagram but do you really think the people in tent cities at Columbia university are going to take up arms and hold people hostage?

As far as I know no leftist has invaded the home of Mike Johnson with a hammer trying to kill him but took out his wife instead

As far as I know no leftist group has plotted to kidnap that invalid governor from texas

As far as I know no leftist group has plotted to overthrow an election cuz a Republican won

As far as I know no leftist group has stormed congress

But ya, you know, some 21 year old is co-opting death to America while wearing a fedora so newsmax would have you believe you need to buy 17 AR-15s to save yourself

I think someone chanting "death to America" , "for fun" and then ending up clerking for a SCOTUS judge is infinitely more dangerous for society than a group of low lifers on disability or at most repairing bikes in a **** hole county where 40k/year is a high income thinking all colored people should be deported.

Like it's not even close. Those "death to America" people will often enough reach positions where they can have a role in society. That's the actual, direct, real, threat to society, not racist scum without a life venting off some frustration

Chanting: « Hang pence » !

Or they'll get careers and stop caring like everyone else