Texas Governor Greg Abbott felt the full wrath of the internet after naively tweeting a 9gag-watermarked meme that called the Antifa “the fascists of the future” and attributed the words to Winston Churchill.
Abbott was met with torrents of ridicule and snark after sharing a photo of the former British prime minister, accompanied by one of his many memorable “quotes.”
“Churchill on the leftwing: ‘The fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists.’ Some insights are timeless,” the Republican governor commented matter-of-factly in the now-deleted tweet.
However, there’s no evidence that Churchill ever said anything of the kind – a small scruple that was pointed out repeatedly by the 1,400 retweets and 2,600 responses that Abbott’s tweet garnered before it was unceremoniously deleted.
But the damage had already been done, with the Twitteratti mobilizing en masse to mock the Texas governor.
“Sh*tposting from 9GAG at 1am… you would think a governor would have better things to do,” one user commented, referring to the popular website believed to have birthed the dubious Churchill meme. Worse still, the Churchill photograph even had a 9GAG watermark, which should have served as a red flag for a more discerning meme connoisseur.
Other Twitter users provided their own favorite quotes and aphorisms from Churchill and other famous thinkers.
However, not everyone was peeved by the factual error, with some saying the governor still had a point.
“Fake but still fairly accurate,” one Twitter user mused.
Abbott explained later during a press conference that “what I tweeted was a sentiment that I had. It was irrelevant to me who may or may not have said that in the past. I didn’t want to be accused of plagiarism for saying it. If no one else said it, attribute the quote to me because it’s what I believe in.”
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Via RT. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.