The James McClean Sponsored Poppy Thread

[MENTALFATHER79]

On 29/10/2015 at 12:36, kerrdavidson95 said:

I don't really see a reason why anyone wouldn't wear a poppy.

No change.

[Cerberus]

Poland is celebrating 100 years of independence on 11/11/18.




Scotland celebrates 4 years of shiteing it.

[Glenconner]

2 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Poland is celebrating 100 years of independence on 11/11/18.




Scotland celebrates 4 years of shiteing it.

Don’t mention the war or the 50 years after it

[Jacksgranda]

9 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

The 2000s had much fewer Middle East deaths than I expected.

How disappointing for you.

7 hours ago, eddiemunster said:

I live close to the war memorial in my village. I found it off putting that the local orange flute band were providing the music.

Maybe it's the only band in your village?

7 hours ago, Highland Capital said:

I caught the end of it and found it quite interesting.  The one thing that resonated towards the end was that they, essentially to a man, thought that war was awful and should be avoided at all costs.  What a contrast to today where war and militarism is often glamourised and celebrated.  War isn't glamourous, it's a horrible tragedy.

I don't know anyone who thinks it's glamorous.

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

Nine days before the Red Army reached Auschwitz the Germans took 60,000 prisoners and marched them 40 miles west in freezing temperatures. 15,000 died on the way. It's unimaginable to us what that must have been like. Similar things happened at many camps and death marches were common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_marches_(Holocaust)#Auschwitz_to_Loslau

The Japanese did the same.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Had a wee day oot in Brighton on Sunday and, waiting on the train on Blackfrair's, the royal canoe or whatever it is came down the river followed by a flotilla. I'm not one for pomp and circumstance but it was a fairly cool sight. This woulda been about half ten in the morning, obviously trying to get to Westminster for the two minute's silence. No one cared. No one was wearing a poppy. No one even stopped to look at it apart from me. Then they started playing "Jerusalem" really loudly. Still no one cared. Got on the train and was on the train during the two minute's silence which no one cared about. Got out at Brighton and there was a homeless fella with a wee cardboard sign saying he was an ex soldier looking for work and he got the usual invisibility cloak that homeless people always get. Could count about five folk, all day, in London and Brighton wearing a poppy.

Does anyone actually give a shit about this? Honestly? People seem more concerned with business and institutions showing their respect than doing it themselves. Awaiting the chance to be outraged about someone in the public eye wearing a poppy (or to be outraged at people being outraged)

[DA Baracus]

11 hours ago, Highland Capital said:

I caught the end of it and found it quite interesting.  The one thing that resonated towards the end was that they, essentially to a man, thought that war was awful and should be avoided at all costs.  What a contrast to today where war and militarism is often glamourised and celebrated.  War isn't glamourous, it's a horrible tragedy.

I caught this as well.

 

Agree that it was very interesting. Didn’t quite realise that seemingly the majority of the guys who signed up did so very willingly and rushed out to do so. The kids lying about their age to get in, and the army being complicit in this, is tragic in hindsight. It seems like so many thought it was a bit of an adventure with their mates. I found myself empathising with a lot of them, especially when one guy said it seemed exciting compared to sitting in an office all day. I think at first it would have been decent when you were with your mates and doing the drills and it was all being built up to a bit of a jolly.

 

Some pretty gruesome stuff was shown that soon made it clear how awful it all was. The matter of fact way the guys talked about charging the lines and and killing folk I think showed that it wasn’t something they really wanted to remember. It seemed like they saw it as a necessity and were following orders, and not something they particularly wanted to do.

 

It also resonated with me at the end how they all said that war was awful and hoped that it would never happen again, and how they didn’t see themselves as heroes. I think they’d be disgusted to see how things are ‘remembered’ these days, because their efforts were for nought. They were wasted and their memories tarnished.

 

What they did has been totally disrespected by the wankers who have hijacked the poppy stuff. Folk who have big gaudy displays, football teams with poppies on their tops, poppies on cars, folk with bullshit displays in their gardens, scum who get poppy tattoos, folk who demand others wear one, the hero worship of the armed forces, societal pressure around it all, poppies on jets, poppy merchandise, poppy pizzas, poppy Facebook pictures and frames, poppies on buses, boring barely legible Facebook statuses about it, poppy pebbles, poppy world records etc etc and all the other bullshit; all of it is a massive show of disrespect to the people who did fight in WW1. Thye fought so others wouldn’t have to go to war again. They said they weren’t heroes. They didn’t want to remembered as such; they wanted to be remembered for their efforts in stopping the horrors of war, the waste of human life, the toll it takes on everyone.

 

They failed unfortunately and the whole ‘remembrance’ day and poppy bullshit is a celebration of their failure.

Edited November 12, 2018 by DA Baracus

[doulikefish]

See you all next year

[Priti priti priti Patel]

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Margaret Thatcher said:

They should all be fired for not wearing their hard hats on site.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

I caught the end of it and found it quite interesting.  The one thing that resonated towards the end was that they, essentially to a man, thought that war was awful and should be avoided at all costs.  What a contrast to today where war and militarism is often glamourised and celebrated.  War isn't glamourous, it's a horrible tragedy.

in the bit where they’re talking about the difficulty of fitting back into civilian life one of them says that people who weren’t there “seemed to think the war had been like one big cavalry charge” I took from his comments that the general view of war was more glorious in 1919 than it is now

But it’s in the nature of the mosaic format that the film doesn’t put forward a single overarching argument or story instead giving us a succession of glimpses into subjective individual experiences

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

in the bit where they’re talking about the difficulty of fitting back into civilian life one of them says that people who weren’t there “seemed to think the war had been like one big cavalry charge” I took from his comments that the general view of war was more glorious in 1919 than it is now

But it’s in the nature of the mosaic format that the film doesn’t put forward a single overarching argument or story instead giving us a succession of glimpses into subjective individual experiences



 

 

I don't think the death toll and awfulness of battles like the Somme came out till the early Twenties, the press were very tightly controlled.

Edited November 12, 2018 by welshbairn

[topcat(The most tip top)]

17 hours ago, GordonS said:

Things have been relatively peaceful though.

That site has loads and loads of data

https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace#a-greater-number-of-increasingly-less-deadly-conflicts

From a Global perspective  there hasn't been a big war between states since Iraq took on Iran but there have been more and more small civil conflicts 

From a European point of view  the idea that things have been relatively peaceful stands up

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by topcat(The most tip top)

[Highland Capital]

7 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

I don't know anyone who thinks it's glamorous.

 

14 hours ago, Black Dug said:

Is it glamourised?

Maybe by the media, not by those involved.

I don't know anyone who has been involved in recent conflicts that didn't think it was shit.

I would say referring to soldiers as 'our brave boys' and 'heroes', along with careers fairs where they make the army look like a great big fun computer game and 'Forward As One' adverts on the TV where it looks like one big holiday with your friends is making the forces look rather glamourised.   

[Jacksgranda]

12 minutes ago, Highland Capital said:

 

I would say referring to soldiers as 'our brave boys' and 'heroes', along with careers fairs where they make the army look like a great big fun computer game and 'Forward As One' adverts on the TV where it looks like one big holiday with your friends is making the forces look rather glamourised.   

I don't know anyone who refers to soldiers as "our brave boys" and "heroes". I don't know anyone who organises career fairs. I don't know anyone who works in TV advertising. (Just because you make an advert doesn't mean you believe it.)

So, I don't know anyone who thinks it's glamorous.

 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

22 minutes ago, Highland Capital said:

 

I would say referring to soldiers as 'our brave boys' and 'heroes', along with careers fairs where they make the army look like a great big fun computer game and 'Forward As One' adverts on the TV where it looks like one big holiday with your friends is making the forces look rather glamourised.   

Fair point.

But despite this the armed forces are struggling, more than ever, to recruit people.

Indeed the fact that recruiters are having to try so hard to sell military life shows how unattractive and glamorous people find it.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by topcat(The most tip top)

[Oooooft]

 

 

Lol.

 

[Black Dug]

I would say referring to soldiers as 'our brave boys' and 'heroes', along with careers fairs where they make the army look like a great big fun computer game and 'Forward As One' adverts on the TV where it looks like one big holiday with your friends is making the forces look rather glamourised.   

Your first 2 points are a media construct, your last point is highlighting the esprit d'corp and fellowship of the forces and technical aspects of the job not glamourising war. The forces generated media is generally focused on the humanitarian help they are involved in.

Let's not make stuff up here.
The forces are sent out to war by the democratically elected politicians, if you have any beef about that I suggest you speak to your MP. If you can't see past the jingoistic headlines then I suggest you stop reading tabloid newspapers*

*broadsheets aren't much better these days due to the slow death of the printed press)

[Granny Danger]

13 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Fair point.

But despite this the armed forces are struggling, more than ever, to recruit people.

Indeed the fact that recruiters are having to try so hard to sell military life shows how unattractive and glamorous people find it.

 

Wait until Brexit kicks in.  Working class lads and lasses will be desperate to take the Queen’s shilling to avoid starvation.

Edit for typo.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Granny Danger

[Jacksgranda]

1 minute ago, Granny Danger said:

Wait until Brexit kicks in.  Working class lads and lasses will be desperate to take the Queen’s shilling to avoid starvation.

Edit for typo.

Then they'll be guarding the food stores to which only the elite will have access, and shooting any proles who attempt to gain access.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]