In yesterday’s Superbowl, Coca-Cola aired an ad with multicultural people singing “America the Beautiful” in a number of different languages. In response, a few rednecks tweeted racist things about how here in America we speak English.

Today, multiple major news sources are rattling off stories on the “controversial” ad that is inspiring “Racist Twitter Backlash”, while caring, sensible folks are jumping at the opportunity to prove they aren’t racist and decry these asinine comments.

It’s a brilliant marketing ploy by Coke. By stirring up a little good old boy patriotic fervor and setting off a barrage of articles and tweets and Facebook posts, they get the words “Coca Cola” to echo all across the internet, meanwhile snuggling down into that juicy “middle-left” section of the “American Political Spectrum” where almost everybody who still believes they are part of an “American Political System” resides.

All of which effectively distracts us from the real problem with this advertisement: Coca Cola using things that aren’t theirs, like America, American people, and the “American Spirit”, to sell their product.

CocaCola does not give a SHIT about “America”, much less people of color. Since when did my patriotism have anything to do with Coke? Since when did “America the Beautiful”, the American flag, and images of people achieving the “American Dream” become fair game for you to use to sell your death drink to children? Did this happen when Coke stopped sucking up all the ground water in rural India and selling back the toxic sludge their plants produce as bogus fertilizer to local farmers? Or when Coke stopped raping and murdering union activists in Guatemala? Or maybe when not a single one of the things listed on this Wikipedia page turned out to be true?

A little left vs. right social media battle is all we need to forget about the fact that what remains of our sentimental attachment to the idea of America is being squeezed into dollars for a multinational corporation that systematically exploits, pollutes, and depletes planet earth and its people.