I don’t think it’s polarized, but there’s a language barrier: when environmental scientists speak, you should probably suffix everything they say with “in the environment.”

Forever chemicals are indeed forever, in the environment, because there are virtually no natural processes that break them down on human timescales. Many plastics similarly do not degrade in the environment on human scales.

It’s incumbent upon you, as a lay person, to understand that science isn’t categorical in nature. When scientists use phrases like “forever,” they’re making statements relative to the domain of interest.