Texas Guv Falls for Satirical Garth Brooks Article Written by ‘Flagg Eagleton’

The internet is forever. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) learned that the hard way Sunday when he earnestly tweeted out a link to a fake news article about the singer Garth Brooks being booed off stage in his state. “Go woke. Go broke,” he captioned it. “Garth called his conservative fans. ‘assholes’ [sic] Good job Texas.” The governor swiftly deleted the tweet, but not before several Twitter users were able to screenshot his post. It’s unclear whether Abbott was informed of his mistake or if he caught the blunder himself—and if so, what exactly tipped him off. Could it have been that the city of Hambriston doesn’t exist? Perhaps it was another paragraph in the story quoting an official as saying he dreaded Brooks’ impending arrival, anticipating “a lot of chaos, with leftists swarming the area to flash their fake breasts in front of children.” Maybe he had second thoughts upon clocking the name of the story’s author, “Flagg Eagleton - Patriot,” or the outlet itself: The Dunning-Kruger Times. A satirical site with a conservative bent that calls itself “America’s Last Line of Defense,” the Times was apparently christened in reference to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a term used in psychology for a person with low skills or knowledge overestimating their competence in a given field.