News chunks: Christian nationalist internal divisions; Pollution industry propaganda tactics shift

I do not engage much about what Christianity means or what a real Christian is compared to faux Christians. To me, one cannot rationally discuss or argue about things that are mostly or completely matters of faith, including religion and its dogmas. It’s completely or almost completely subjective. Newsweek writes about an example of this subjectivity from the “Jesus Gets You” TV ads that a Christian billionaire ran during the superbowl (edited lightly):

Christian Super Bowl Commercial Outrages Conservatives

Some conservatives felt like the advertisement justified certain sins.

The commercial, funded by the organization "He Gets Us" showed images of several people, including a woman outside a family planning clinic and a person attending a protest, having their feet washed, a reference to the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet. The commercial ends with the phrase, “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet.”

The images are meant to symbolize “how we should treat one another,” while the commercial is meant to call themes of “love and unity” and “love your neighbor” ahead of a deeply divided election, according to the organization in a press release, which says its goal is to “remind everyone, including ourselves, that Jesus' teachings are a warm embrace, not a cold shoulder.” 

Still, the commercial was met with an icy reception from many conservatives and religious leaders on social media.

“The ‘he gets us’ feet ad about Jesus seems to imply that Jesus was cool with all kinds of sinful behavior. He wasn’t. He didn’t go hangout with prostitutes or any other sinner because he accepted the choices they made, he did it to inspire them to change,” Robby Starbuck, a music video director and former congressional candidate, posted to X.

“The ‘He Gets Us’ commercial might seem harmless to some, but it’s obviously part of a psyop to trick Christians into thinking Jesus is fine with sin & apostasy. It’s the opposite of what our world needs right now,” pastor Ryan Visconti wrote.

Andrew T. Walker, a Southern Seminary theology professor, posted that the commercial “framed evangelism with a leftward tinge, communicating the respectability of certain sins over others in our culture.”  

“Some Christians hated the @HeGetsUs ad because they think it’s an insult to show us humbling ourselves to serve people with whom we disagree. Or they think serving = affirming sin. Reread the Sermon on the Mount. The culture war taught you to focus on fighting them, not Jesus,” posted Justin Giboney, an attorney who co-hosts The Church Politics Podcast.

See the vast difference in how Christian nationalists see their own freaking religion? Also, see how the haters view their version of Christianity through a pure politics lens? I am not going to engage with any of that bickering.

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In what seems to be a shift in dark free speech tactics by the pro-pollution economic sector, plastics companies are going on the attack by cynically shifting blame for plastics pollution from themselves to consumers. The WaPo writes:

The plastics industry would like a word with your kids

School campuses are a new battleground in an increasingly bitter brawl over plastic’s impact on the environment

Wearing a lab coat, Eve Vitale asked a chemistry class at Warren Mott High School if anyone had heard anything bad about plastics. Hands shot up. It doesn’t degrade, said one student. It hurts the environment, said another.

But “that’s not really the plastic’s fault,” said Vitale, chief executive of the Society of Plastics Engineers Foundation, a group of industry professionals. “That’s the fault of humanity.” After warning what a “mess” it would be in supermarkets and hospitals without plastics, Vitale instructed that the plastic pollution crisis could be addressed through stepped up personal responsibility, product innovation and improvements in recycling.  

School campuses are a new battleground in an increasingly bitter brawl over plastics, as groups like Vitale’s seek to improve the reputation of a material that has become infamous as an environmental menace. The efforts are partially funded by companies involved in or dependent on fossil fuel production, through donations and conference sponsorships. Plastics manufacturing involves large amounts of oil and natural gas. Some of these companies see plastics as an opportunity to continue growing as demand for gasoline and diesel dissipates amid the rise of electric vehicles.

As usual, it is always about the money and the power needed to get it. Here, the polluters seek power by polluting children’s minds with the cynical argument that plastics pollution is the consumer’s fault. The plastics makers say they have nothing to do with it. What an outrageous, cynical lie. 

Decades ago, right from the get-go, the plastics makers knew their products were an environmental disaster. Nonetheless, they told us plastics were recyclable, thereby coaxing consumers into accepting them as harmless. 

Symbols of deceit - ~90% of plastics aren't recyclable, 

so the recycling myth is 100% a lie

I posted about this topic in 2020, citing this 5 minute NPR interview (and also here about cynical industry tactics) .

Besides shifting to blaming consumers, the industry also says part of the solution could come from “product innovation” and “improvements in recycling.” What a load of insulting crap. Improvements in recycling have been needed for decades, but we are still in the same place we always were, i.e., over 90% of plastic has never been recycled. The polluters citing unspecified product innovation is cynical, insulting, meaningless nonsense. Single use plastic is single use plastic. You use it once, toss it, can’t recycle or burn it, so it pollutes the environment. 

The situation is simple. Polluting the environment with plastic makes lots of money. Polluters want to keep polluting for money. Period.