Another day, another ridiculous fake outrage MAGA controversy that was quickly debunked. This time it involved religion (shocker) and custom Coca-Cola cans, and it even had a trending hashtag for a hot minute, called #boycottcocacola. So what was it all about?
Around noon-ish on Sept. 25, a video started circulating of a man at a “Coke store.” The man claimed that the kiosk where you could “personalize a message” would not allow you to type in the word Jesus. The man then demonstrates this by typing in “Allah loves you” and “Buddhah (his spelling) loves you” but not “Jesus,” which brings up a message that says “Whoops!”
The caption on the video said that Facebook user Antwoine Hill posted the video.
Cue the outrage! They’re persecuting us again, the MAGA faithful whined. Here’s a sample: “BREAKING: Apparently Coca Cola doesn’t support its Christian customers. You’re allowed to put any religious name on your custom can, except Jesus. This alone should be reason alone to boycott Coca Cola. Why should we support a company that is anti Christian?” That tweet has more than 1.8 million impressions as of this writing.
It did not take long for facts to get in the way of MAGA’s persecution complex. On the above tweet, community notes came to the rescue:
“Contrary to what the tweet claims, “Allah loves you” was not “allowed” but “pending approval” (as overlaid on the shared preview). It has since been confirmed to be, like “Jesus loves you”, not allowed (as seen by trying to replicate the demand on Coca-Cola’s website).”
Conveniently, the video never showed what happened if you press enter after the Allah line. On its website, Coke says that names and phrases “may not be approved if they are … political in nature, celebrities, religious figures, as well as anything that could be considered offensive….”
Other prohibited phrases include “Harris 2024.” The response after this happened? Did MAGA heads accept this L with grace? You know the answer to that. The immediate reaction was that they “updated the site.” It must be a conspiracy! IT HAS TO BE! What else could it possibly be?
We forget that not all Christians are MAGA idiots. Some took this news in stride, choosing to, and we know this is hard to believe, not really give a sh*t.
“I’m a Christian but I’m not going to lose my mind over every company or person that doesn’t believe like I do. I pray for them, I hope they change their ways, and I pick a few battles. But I’m not giving up my Coke.”
Here’s another approach that’s pretty easy to get on board with: “Oh for Pete’s sake. Go find something else to be angry about, you bunch of f*cking weirdos.”