They/Them Army

Submission 44,158

Part of a series on 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine. [View Related Entries]

About

They/Them Army refers to memes referencing a viral tweet about Joe Biden and the United States Army as a "They/Them Army" in an attempt to label them as weak in comparison to Russia. The tweet was inspired by interest online over the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022, followed shortly after by additional memes emerging on Twitter that referenced it, primarily in image macros.

Origin

On January 24th, 2022, verified Twitter^[1] user SameeraKhan posted a tweet that addressed U.S. President Joe Biden, stating that he should be "very afraid" of Russia and referencing the U.S. Army as a "They/Them Army" in an attempt to label them as weak in relation to abiding by LGBTQ+ vocabulary and aligning with politically correct values as if they were social justice warriors. The tweet (shown below) received roughly 2,000 likes over the course of two days.

As Twitter users saw the original tweet, they started to reference it within memes shortly after. For instance, the first person to make an image macro was Twitter^[5] user xaviersonline, who layered a Soyjak with its mouth open over the original tweet, earning roughly 1,300 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

On January 24th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user delphic_1 then made a meme that used an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin holding his head in his hand, captioning it with top and bottom Impact font reading, "He Couldn't Handle The They/Them Army," referencing memes made about They/Them Pussy (shown below). Over the course of two days, the tweet received 176 likes. However, it was also reposted as a reply beneath the original tweet by Twitter^[2] user isTrashAccount, where it earned roughly 11,800 likes in two days.

More memes were made in the days following. For instance, Twitter^[3] user DylanBurns1776 posted a tweet that used a Crying Wojak and a female SJW Wojak, effectively labeling the latter as representing the average They/Them soldier. The meme (shown below, left) received roughly 11,100 likes over the course of two days. On January 25th, Twitter^[4] account RealYouTubeKids posted a quote tweet that included a meme using the Uncle Ben What Happened? format, earning roughly 25,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

They/Them Army memes were reposted to Instagram on January 25th, such as one from Instagram^[6] account the_southern_leftist that received roughly 1,300 likes in one day. They also landed on Facebook, like one posted by Facebook^[8] page RookMoment on the 25th that earned over 400 reactions in one day.