Hate and Profit Motive

The Underground Unbeliever reports in Jerk on the Radio about an automobile dealership advertising that is summarized as follows:

Folks, I'm not sure if you heard about them before, but there are people in this country who don't believe in God. They want to remove God from the Pledge and from the money. Well since they are only about 14 percent of the people of this country, then I think that they should sit down and shut up. I'm sure that I've offended these 14 percent and I don't care. Now folks, the rest of you who don't belong to the 14 percent can come on down and get a good deal on a Ford.

Actually, this type of marketing will work. There are a lot of people with money who will spend it at this dealership because of this advertisement.

And when other businessess see this form of advertising as profitable, they will join in.

This will continue to get worse until and unless somebody decides that they are going to devote some effort into fighting it.

Somebody needs to shout as loud and as long as possible that:

"AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIP SELLS LIES AND HATE"

Which is an entirely true statement.

Many people who are not atheists want these things removed from the Pledge and the money because they think that mixing church and state is a bad idea (or other reasons).

Some atheists do not want these things removed from the pledge and the money because they think that these are trivial concerns and that we should devote our energies to issues that really matter.

So, why assign this position to 'atheists'?

Because this company wants to sell cars by playing on the popular dislike for atheists. It's a standard marketing trick - to associate one's company with something desired (beauty, patriotism, sex) or to position one's company as an allie against something hated in order to promote the company's standing in a culture.

This company is not interested in truth. It is interested in exploiting society's hatred of atheists in order to make money.

Of course, it is inherent in stating, "Consider our company an allie in hating these people," without endorsing that hatred. Without 'selling' hate at the same time one is selling cars.

And the best way to fight this type of move is to devote whatever time and energy it takes to get people to realize that this company (and any who follow its path) are actually associated with something negative.

With the attitude that it is permissible to use lies and hate to make money.