Genocide Joe

About

Genocide Joe is a nickname given to United States President Joe Biden on social media during the 2023 Hamas-Israel Conflict. The nickname resulted from Joe Biden's posts and statements indicating the United State's support of Israel, which combined with accusations of genocide put against Israel by certain parties and many online, although Biden also spoke in support of Palestine and peaceful resolution. After emerging online in mid-October 2023, the moniker spread on social media via posts and memes that typically criticized or mocked Biden.

Origin

Following the October 7th, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel carried out by Hamas and Israel's subsequent retaliation against the organization, United States President Joe Biden made a number of statements and posts in which he expressed solidarity with Israel and the Israeli people, indicating that the U.S. will remain the country's ally (examples shown below).^[1][2][3]

At the same time, Israel's retaliation against Hamas resulted in many civilian deaths, including the highly controversial October 17th, 2023, explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which led to multiple accusations of genocide put against Israel in online discussions despite the blame for the blast being contested by both Hamas and IDF.^[9]

This, combined with Biden's statements in support of Israel, led to users referring to Biden as "Genocide Joe" on X / Twitter and other social media in mid-October 2023. For example, on October 16th, 2023, X^[4] user @_bilaire used the hashtag "#GenocideJoe" in their tweet, which gained over 190 reposts and 750 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Spread

In the second half of October 2023, the nickname trended on X / Twitter several times. For example, on October 18th, 2023 (one day after the al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast), X^[5] user @AltHistCody posted a screenshot of "Genocide Joe" trending on X with over 11,900 posts, gaining over 320 reposts and 5,700 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Starting on October 18th, image macros and other memes referring to Biden as "Genocide Joe" have been prominently shared on social media. For example, on that day, X^[6] account @OLAASM posted an edit of the "Ridin' with Biden" poster recaptioned "Genocidin' with Biden," with the post garnering over 370 reposts and 1,100 likes in two weeks (shown below, left).

Later the same day, X^[7] user @Berningman16 posted a macro copying the style of Barack Obama's "Hope" poster that received over 690 reposts and 1,800 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

The nickname maintained its prevalence online through late October 2023. On October 25th, streamer Hasan Piker used the nickname in his post, which received over 10,000 reposts and 48,000 likes on X^[8] in six days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References