Firebomb a Walmart

Submission 4,844

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

Firebomb a Walmart is a catchphrase that originates from a viral tweet posted by X / Twitter user @LinkOfSunshine in November 2023. The complete quote reads, "People on twitter will really be like 'you believe in voting? that pales in effectiveness to my strategy, firebombing a Walmart' and then not firebomb a Walmart." While the quote is often evoked to mock vocal leftists who reject liberal practices as a means of inciting political change and advocate for violence they don't participate in, it has also drawn criticism for being overly simplistic.

Origins

On November 1st, 2023, X^[1] / Twitter user @arcanecovet quoted a tweet^[2] asking for recommendations on achieving a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict with an image macro of an American eagle labeled "Bad Government? ~~Vote Them Out~~ KILL THEM," receiving over 4,200 reposts and 15,000 likes in over seven months.

On November 3rd, X^[3] user @LinkOfSunshine quote tweeted @arconecovet's post with "People on twitter will really be like 'you believe in voting? that pales in effectiveness to my strategy, firebombing a Walmart' and then not firebomb a Walmart," garnering over 2,900 reposts and 25,000 likes in roughly seven months. The tweet had its visibility limited for a short time due to it being reported for hateful conduct.^[4]

Spread

The catchphrase gained traction on X / Twitter in late 2023, with pro-Israeli and anti-leftist users using the catchphrase to mock self-professed leftists and anarchists who advocate for politically motivated riots and violence without participating in it.

For example, on November 13th, 2023, X^[5] user @westofmain_ posted a screenshot of the originating tweet in response to a tweet^[6] by @FreeRosedark, who claimed that electoral campaigning was worthless. On November 20th, X^[7] user @SwannMarcus89 referenced the tweet after pro-Palestine X user @CallaWalsh was charged with rioting after damaging and attempting to firebomb a building in New Hampshire.^[8]

The tweet was also reposted to Reddit's^[9] /r/196 sub on December 2nd, 2023, where it gathered over 3,000 upvotes in seven months. On December 26th, Tumblr^[10] user @hivemind made a series of posts in reference to the phrase "firebomb a Walmart," gathering over 39,000 notes in five months (seen below, left).

On January 21st, 2024, economist Matt Darling @besttrousers^[11] of the think tank Niskanen Center also tweeted the catchphrase, replacing "voting" with "anti-malaria nets," accumulating over 2,600 likes in five months (seen below, right).

Criticism

Many left-wing users on Twitter / X criticized the catchphrase as it garnered virality in 2024. For example, on February 17th, 2024, X^[12] user @muke10101 responded to the catchphrase by claiming the logic stops working "the moment you replace 'firebomb a walmart' with 'burn down a police station,'" accumulating over 2,200 likes in four months.

On April 17th, X^[13] user @JihadalHaqq criticized the catchphrase by referencing a Martin Luther King Jr. quote claiming that "…the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride to freedom is… the white moderate…," accumulating over 1,500 likes in two months (seen below, left).

Twitter comic artist Haus of Decline^[14] also expressed their dislike of the catchphrase on June 21st, 2024, calling it, "one of the dumbest tweets that has ever been made." The post gathered over 7,000 likes in three days (seen below, right).