Dunning-Kruger Effect: Texas Governor Didn’t Realize He Was Celebrating A Made-Up Event From A Satirical Site
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday proudly praised Texas on Twitter for booing country music legend Garth Brooks off the stage of the 123rd Annual Texas Country Jamboree in the Texas city of Hambriston, sharing an article from the aptly-named Dunning-Kruger Times.
According to the article, Brooks was only on stage for two minutes. “For 22 years, Garth Brooks has been the headliner of this event,” the story quoted a sad Toby Keith after Brooks was booed offstage, “but we really can’t keep pretending he’s not playing for the other side.”
What Abbott didn’t realize was that none of these things were real: the booing off, the performance, the 123-year annual event, and the city of Hambriston were all fiction. The site — which is named after the Dunning-Kruger Effect or the cognitive bias in which a person’s lack of expertise, knowledge, and skills in a certain area causes them to overestimate their own competence — is a satirical publication that has been parodying how right-wing media has been covering current events.
It’s either Abbott is the kind of person who posts an opinion about an article he didn’t actually read, or he’s the type of governor who doesn’t know much about his state. Either way, it’s embarrassing. So much so that he just deleted the tweet and pretended it never happened.
But alas, it did.
Brooks has been a target of right-wing hate since he said that his new bar, the Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, in Nashville, Tennessee, is planning to serve Bud Light. Conservatives have been raining fire and brimstone on the beer brand since it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a campaign earlier this year.
“Yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make. Our thing is this if you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an a–hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway,” Brooks said.
While Abbott is perhaps the most high-profile person to share something from Dunning-Kruger Times, he’s certainly not the first to do so. The site also recently created an article about how Brooks had to cancel his bar opening because of anti-trans backlash, and it went around conservative Twitter, even getting picked up by media outlets.
Information for this story was found via Twitter, Forbes, Snopes, Dunning-Kruger Times, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
