The 3 Percenters Are Bad at Math
And Now They're Outnumbered
There’s a particular flavor of online douchebag that you’re bound to bump into if you spend enough time in the darker corners of the internet. They usually have names like Richard James Elroy III — or something equally suspect — because apparently, serial killer energy is part of the aesthetic.
Their usernames tend to follow a pattern: three first names, and then a string of “III” or “3%” tagged on like a badge of honor. And that’s not a coincidence. These guys are self-proclaimed members of the so-called Three Percenters, one of America’s many armed cosplay militias whose historical literacy hovers somewhere between drunk uncle at Thanksgiving and concussed football coach.
For those blissfully unfamiliar: the Three Percenters claim that only 3% of the population fought in the American Revolution — and they see themselves as the modern-day version of those brave patriots. You know: the last true defenders of freedom, liberty, bald eagles, and totally not-racist Facebook memes. The problem, of course, is that their foundational statistic is utter nonsense. Historians have repeatedly debunked the claim; actual participation rates in the Revolution were vastly higher. But, as with most things in extremist circles, facts are largely irrelevant when vibes will do.
And now they are officially outnumbered.
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The New Math of Dissent
Now, I’m not here to fact-check the Three Percenters — reality already did that job and moved on. What I want to talk about is the new math that just dropped. June 14th, 2025, across the country, we saw mass mobilization at the No Kings Protest. The total reported turnout? Around 11 million people.
Let’s break that down.
America’s total population sits somewhere around 330 million. That means the protest turnout was roughly 3.5% of the entire U.S. population — already outnumbering the supposed "3%" these militia cosplayers like to cite.
But let’s go deeper.
Not everybody who showed up was eligible to vote. Some were immigrants. Some were felons. Some were minors whose parents were irresponsible enough to drag them into what was, let’s be honest, a high-risk environment. So, for the sake of argument, let’s conservatively estimate that 80% of attendees were registered voters. That’s about 8.5 million voters.
In the last election cycle, about 160 million Americans voted. Which means that roughly 6% of eligible voters just physically showed up to a protest movement demanding systemic change.
That’s double the sacred "3%" figure these guys have been clinging to like a tactical binky.
New 3% Just Dropped
So forget your 3%. We’ve got a 6% now. And the difference isn’t just arithmetic. The Three Percenters built an identity around being the radical vanguard: the brave few willing to stand up while the masses cowered. But they’re no longer special. They're outnumbered. Outpaced. Outgunned — metaphorically, for now.
It’s a bit like watching a washed-up garage band get upstaged by a stadium tour: the crowd has moved on, but they’re still playing their same three songs at the local VFW hall, wondering why the merch table is empty.
The Three Percenter cosplay has officially expired. The James Earl Rays and Richard James Elroys can go sit down. Their time is over.
The movement for actual systemic change is bigger. Louder. Smarter. And, most importantly: we can do math.
