The term “99% Hitler” was a top trend on X Tuesday morning as users reacted to a since-deleted post that stated “if there was an election where the only two viable candidates are Hitler and Hitler but 1% less bad, you are morally obligated to vote for hitler but 1% less bad.”
The post came in response to President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Palestine war. He’s been criticized for tacitly endorsing Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which has been condemned for its high death toll.
“I’m sorry if you have a choice in an election between 1 genocide or 2 genocides and you decide not to vote, you either have a child’s view of politics or have ulterior motives and are evil,” wrote one user, implying Trump would continue the war in Gaza and ramp up attacks on the LGBTQ community if reelected.
“The ridiculous thing about this is if Biden was somehow ‘good’ on Palestinian issues but genocidal in his intentions towards LGBTQ people like the Republicans these liberals would never support Biden. Biden fanatics simply don’t care about the lives of Palestinians,” responded another, prompting the 99% Hitler claim.
One X user replied that if she worked for Biden’s reelection campaign she would “focus energy on getting guys like this to please stop trying to argue in favor of biden because holy shit there is no way the ‘99% hitler’ argument gets anyone to vote for Joe.”
“When ‘99% Hitler’ trends its a sign that @POTUS shouldn’t run in 2024 (and should be tried in the Hague),” wrote another user.
Someone else responded to the original post that “if an election comes down to hitler and 99% hitler you are morally obligated to overthrow your government.”
“cmon fellas. aim a little higher,” he added in a second post.
One post, featuring a screenshot from Joe Rogan’s podcast and fake quote from North Korean defector Yeomini Park, gained over 62,000 likes and more than one million impressions as of Tuesday morning.
“‘In America they make you vote for 100% Hitler or 99% Hitler. And if you don’t vote for either of them you actually elect Double Hitler,’” the caption reads, mocking Park for some of her claims that have been considered dubious.
“Once you think about it, not voting for Hitler is a vote for Hitler, so you have to vote for Hitler to save democracy,” replied one user.
“if you vote for 68% hitler, you help 100% hitler,” said someone else.
“*trying to win over votes for my candidate* ‘okay, so, imagine two hitlers…’” joked someone else.
The bizarre argument comes as the Democratic establishment has continued to wholeheartedly back Biden’s reelection.
Biden’s primary challengers have not received widespread support, and he leads in the race for the Democratic nomination with an average of 72% support nationwide. His closest Democratic challenger, Marianne Williamson, is notching just 7% on average.
However, polls show Biden struggling against his likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, who recently drew his comparisons to being 100% Hitler after he called his political opponents “vermin” that he would “root out” if reelected.
