Off topic but there was a couple of polls 2 or 3 years ago, one was by YouGov, and only 33% of people said they didn't believe in God or a 'higher power'. If that's accurate then the poster may be correct.
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Is that Cookie Monster??
https://deadspin.com/james-mccleans-...m-t-1830233186
An interesting article comparing attitudes to wearing the poppy in Britain with the reaction to the anthem protests in American sport and whether the reaction to him is partly to do with him being a Northern Irish catholic Also a bit of Hibs content in it.
Imagine if Germany had a symbol that was wore once a year to commemorate all those who died fighting in all the past wars. Not unimaginable because like the UK Germany has many monuments mourning the deaths of their sons and daughters in both world wars scattered across the country in most small towns and villages.
Now imagine public outrage towards Jews, Brits, Dutch, Poles, Czechs, French and Belgians who refuse to honour all Germany's war dead including the SS. It's just not gonna happen. People need to get into their heads that not everyone has the same viewpoint towards the British Military and some may even see them legitimately as oppressors.
Yes I can understand the wish to remember those who fell in the name of the country they live in, they were regardless of what war they fought in sons, brothers, fathers and grandfathers of all of us. Just don't expect the rest of the world to share your viewpoint.
I'm actually starting to dread Remembrance Day every year, because of all the faux indignation of the Daily Mail Reader and Ultra Loyalist types that think people shouldn't have the right to choose
Is that really the freedom that all those people gave their lives for?
I've been out the UK for 20 years so don't see any poppy type campaign at all where I live. I recall 20 or so years ago in the UK the whole thing was low key and understated but I had a WTF moment the other day when I saw online pictures of an Edinburgh church with a stream of red poppies down the side, some of them knitted by locals and church goers. It's all becoming a bit weird and somewhat sinister celebration rather than just a quiet remembrance of a dark period.
Sums the situation up perfectly. 40 years ago Remembrance used to be 1 day of quiet reflection, but one which just about everyone respected. Nowadays it's weeks of in your face glorification of the armed forces which has the effect of diminishing the meaning behind it. Very sad really.
No it isn't. The growth in recent years of 'poppy fascism' is very unseemly, I agree. It's a recent phenomenon, designed to impose conformity and break dissent. I buy a poppy every year, in my case largely to remember a fallen generation in WW1, including the young men on the opposing side, who were sent in their millions to be cut down in the prime of life; and also the fight against fascism in WW2. Other people may buy one for different reasons and some won't buy one. That's okay, and we shouldn't be dictating to others on the issue and certainly we shouldn't be politicising it.
Wouldn't even say it was a whole day 40 years ago. It was two minutes on the 11th, and for church goers a couple of hours on Remembrance Sunday morning. People put money in tins for a poppy in the same way they would for any other charity, not to signal something about themselves.
Agreed. When I was a boy (cue the Hovis music) wearing the poppy was all about the generation that was lost in 1914-1918 plus those who had fought fascism in the Second War. But it was mainly about the First World War. Researching my own family history showed that like most Scottish families we had lost sons, uncles, brothers and fathers in the trenches.
At school in Edinburgh I wore the poppy, and we had an 2 minute silence at 11am on the nearest Friday to Remembrance Sunday as a number of pupils from the school had died during the conflict. Now it's been twisted into something it was not 20 years ago.
I haven't wore a poppy for a couple of years now. Perhaps as it's the centenery of the Armistice I will, but I must confess that I am repulsed by some of the stuff that surrounds it now.