Using plastic. Driving to work. Eating meat. Not recycling a paper plate. Being white. Being male. Watering your lawn.

Someone wants you to feel guilty about each of these. Even when they don't apply. Or can't apply. They want you to feel guilty so that you will give them money to assuage your guilt. It's total manipulation. And the odd thing is they don't feel the least bit guilty about taking your money.

The stories they use match the topics above:

Pacific trash. Global warming. Cruelty. Waste. Slavery. Bring aggressive. Waste.

Take plastic. The single most useful invention of the 20th century, making food delivery massively safe. But then you hear about the giant swirl of plastic trash in the Pacific ocean, and how it's your fault.  Well, it isn't. Your straw did not blow out of a trash can and into a river, when lead to the Pacific and gathered there. The trash in the Pacific was loaded 100 tons at a time onto barges, and purposely dumped in the ocean to get rid of it. The US didn't do it, nor did Japan nor any developed country. It was the poor countries who did it. Countries who could not afford to develop and operate a trash dump. Most of it comes from eleven countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa. China dumps 30% of it. The first six on the list dump more than half of it.

Each topic above can be handled similarly by asking one question: Did I do that? If the answer is no, or if you have no idea when you might have done it, then you didn't and are guilt free.

All the guilt is manufactured by PR people to get your money. It's a manipulation. Don't give in; don't let them ruin your life because they are greedy.

Real guilt come because you hurt someone. You should feel that, deeply enough to make amends.

And for heaven's sake, never let the truly guilty go free because they made you feel bad about punishing them. They deserve it. They are the only ones who do.