#GovAbbott Tweets, Then Deletes, Mis-Attributed Churchill Quote About Fascism [#TXPolitics 24/7]

Like many overzealous social media users, Gov. Greg Abbott fell prey to a fake quote early Tuesday, sharing it and then deleting it later in the morning once he realized the mistake. Twitter, and the media, were of course unforgiving.

On Tuesday morning, Abbott tweeted a meme that mistakenly attributed a quote about fascism to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The quote states, "The fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists."

The Dallas Morning News reported:

Abbott tweeted the meme at 1:10 a.m. Tuesday, adding "some insights are timeless." He deleted it at around 10:20 a.m, after it had been retweeted more than 1,400 times. More than 2,600 people responded, many of whom pointed out that the quote was not Churchill's.

The governor's spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment before it was deleted. Abbott was then asked about the tweet at a press conference early Tuesday afternoon.

"What I tweeted was a sentiment that I had," Abbott said at a news conference on changes to the state's bail laws. "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."

The graphic was actually created for the satirical website 9gag.com, which is known for its off-the-wall and sometimes off-color posts. Millions of visitors share memes from the site, and from others like it.

The paper, like others, of course took Abbott to task for other facts he got wrong on twitter, such as the story that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had threatened to fire players who didn't stand for the national anthem.

The fact is, the Internet is awash in falsely attributed quotes. Thousands are falsely attributed to Confucius, the Dalai Lama, and the Buddha. Even former presidents like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are the frequent targets of many falsely attributed quotations.

Sites like quoteinvestigator.com/ and Wikiquote are good places to check before sharing a graphic online. We also might suggest to both Gov. Abbott and Pres. Trump that 2 am and 3 am tweets may not be the best idea.