Well, these all feel like straw men arguments.

“Don’t tell people to not pollute because they will pollute more”

:eye-roll:

It’s like “don’t tell people to treat women with respect because then they will hurt women more”

It’s a logical Fallacy and everyone arguing it should be ashamed.

You‘re the one making a straw man argument. If you had read my comment at all charitably, you would have known I was referring to a larger problem than plastic straw waste. Obviously plastic straws create waste. [I dislike them personally and don’t use them]

The issue is, though, if people paint straws as a vital cause of such problems as ocean garbage patches, then that sort of messaging can turn people away. If people research and find that most ocean garbage comes from a few rivers, and fishing nets, then they won’t trust people who say ”don‘t use straws, it pollutes the oceans [in a significant way]“.

Do you care if there is some truth to it?

This thread, and many like it, demonstrate what I believe is the root problem in so many of society's problems today: undisciplined/shallow thinking, sub-optimal motivations (winning the argument), and poor communication.