#lestweforget

[SpiderChrist]

Someone at work has posted on Yammer (a social media for businesses, like Facebook or Twitter but much, much worse) that he's disappointed that poppies aren't on sale in the office this year, and ended with the hashtag #lestweforget. He makes a good point, as poppies are very hard to come by at this time of year, what with no cunt anywhere selling them.

Lest We Forget? It's hardly likely with arseholes like him banging on about it.

[Norton Canes]

The poppies in our garden all bloom in the summer. Can't we move poppy day to the summer so it happens when all the real poppies are in bloom?

[Howj Begg]

It would be an interesting (and no doubt hellishly painful) experiment to ask people like this exactly what is in danger of being forgotten. Would be fun to watch them think about this very hard. Is it:

- The historical fact of WW1?
- The concept that "brave young soldiers sacrificed themselves to [make us free]" or something? The bit in square brackets is the part I'm sure many would struggle with. A nuanced understanding of the historical sitaution as it developed might posit that many young men realised from 1915 onwards that the war was a sham and they'd been tricked into the trenches to die for people who seemed suspiciously similar to the Bosch in every way except for the language they spoke. These people did not want to sacrifice themselves. Is it that that we're supposed to not forget?
- Is it to make sure we don't forget how bad war is? Seems implausibly unlikely, but you never know
- Is it to not forget that WW1 was an unimitigated apocalyptic disaster which helped to change society, and inject socialism directly into the European mainstream?
- Is it the only historical event they think matters?

What exactly are we in danger of forgetting, and why does it matter that we remember. Answers on a postcard from France.


I'd like to see a fucking great rosette to commemorate the massacres of 1848 and 1871, but I don't think that's happening.

[Fambo Number Mive]

We remember service personnel killed in all conflicts with the poppy, not just World War One.

You can wear a white poppy if you feel that represents your beliefs better. I don't myself though.

[Howj Begg]

You can wear a white poppy if you feel that represents your beliefs better. I don't myself though.

I tend to wear clothes if I feel I need any external covering. A white flower just isn't big enough.

[JamesTC]

I don't think there is anything more respectful than a hashtag.

#lestweforget #likefor1respect

[Icehaven]

At the risk of sounding like an are brave boys-er, although I don't really care if I do, as those schmaltzy fb pics and billboards say all the poppying isn't just about remembering the dead, it's about remembering the living (with missing limbs and PTSD and all that) as well.

Edit: that doesn't sound quite right, 'remembering the living', but you know what I mean.

[steve98]

It was so long ago, we've forgotten what it is we're (supposed to be)remembering; and most of the oldies doing the remembering have dementia so they don't know either... we need some kind of catchy poem or memorial song similar to "Remember remember the 5th of November..." but for the 11th.

[JoeyBananaduck]

Remember, remember the 11th of November
Murder and chaos and war
A fucking disgrace, got shot in the face
And your undies are covered in gore

#rip #lestweegret

[pancreas]

^ karm

[SpiderChrist]

Remember, remember the 11th of November
Murder and chaos and war
A fucking disgrace, got shot in the face
And your undies are covered in gore

#rip #lestweegret

Shooting great big wads of warm sticky karma all over your upturned face.

[king_tubby]

POPPY TRUCK

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/uk/royal-british-legion-threatens-poppy-truck-woman-legal-action/

Thanks for dying!

[im barry bethel]

At the risk of sounding like an are brave boys-er, although I don't really care if I do, as those schmaltzy fb pics and billboards say all the poppying isn't just about remembering the dead, it's about remembering the living (with missing limbs and PTSD and all that) as well.

Edit: that doesn't sound quite right, 'remembering the living', but you know what I mean.

Conscripted soldiers in ww1 & ww2 maybe but since 1960 every are brave boy (and girl) who has had arms legs and brains blown off have done so of their own volition. Same as the "for YOUR freedom" nonsense, that only applied 1939-1945, what the fuck killing Koreans Kenyans Cypriots Argentines Iraqis Afghanistans or Syrians has to do with my freedom fuck knows

[Howj Begg]

Conscripted soldiers in ww1 & ww2 maybe but since 1960 every are brave boy (and girl) who has had arms legs and brains blown off have done so of their own volition. Same as the "for YOUR freedom" nonsense, that only applied 1939-1945, what the fuck killing Koreans Kenyans Cypriots Argentines Iraqis Afghanistans or Syrians has to do with my freedom fuck knows

Yep, bingo. Im one of them boldies too.

[king_tubby]

'lest we forget' is a bit old fashioned, mind. They ought to update it to something a bit more relevant to today's armed forces.


'shuffle of this mortal coil you cunt'.

[biggytitbo]

Conscripted soldiers in ww1 & ww2 maybe but since 1960 every are brave boy (and girl) who has had arms legs and brains blown off have done so of their own volition. Same as the "for YOUR freedom" nonsense, that only applied 1939-1945, what the fuck killing Koreans Kenyans Cypriots Argentines Iraqis Afghanistans or Syrians has to do with my freedom fuck knows

Yes, the vast majority of engagements since then have been 'military action', specifically us using the armed forces as a neo-imperial tool rather than actual wars where we're forced to defend ourselves as a last resort.

[Howj Begg]

'lest we forget' is a bit old fashioned, mind. They ought to update it to something a bit more relevant to today's armed forces.


'shuffle of this mortal coil you cunt'.

How about #lestweblackmailyouwithaphotographandarticleinTheSun ?

[Dr Syntax Head]

How can you forget something you were not alive to have experienced in order to remember?

[Dr Syntax Head]

Conscripted soldiers in ww1 & ww2 maybe but since 1960 every are brave boy (and girl) who has had arms legs and brains blown off have done so of their own volition. Same as the "for YOUR freedom" nonsense, that only applied 1939-1945, what the fuck killing Koreans Kenyans Cypriots Argentines Iraqis Afghanistans or Syrians has to do with my freedom fuck knows

Indeed. It is a choice. Lest we forget admin assistants at the job centre by that logic. Poppies for scaffolders. Remembrance for taxi drivers etc etc

[Cloud]

Same argument every year... (though it's interesting this place leans extremely anti-poppy)

I don't think there are many people who support it who seriously see it as a glorification of war.  We all know war's shit, and some families may get some comfort knowing that their loved ones are remembered and honoured in some way rather than just sent to die and be forgotten.  Obviously it'd be far better if they hadn't been sent to die in the first place, but they have been...

I've not bothered this time seeing as it is so controversial, but generally have a view of:
1) Wear one or don't wear one, wear a white one if you want, or both, whatever you believe is right, not arsed mate.
2) Don't be a dick to people who chose differently for 1)
Things would be a lot nicer.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I wear a poppy for my postman

Armed forces=career choice.

[Icehaven]

Conscripted soldiers in ww1 & ww2 maybe but since 1960 every are brave boy (and girl) who has had arms legs and brains blown off have done so of their own volition. Same as the "for YOUR freedom" nonsense, that only applied 1939-1945, what the fuck killing Koreans Kenyans Cypriots Argentines Iraqis Afghanistans or Syrians has to do with my freedom fuck knows

That's got nothing to do with what I was saying, and there's probably some conscripted WW2 soldiers still alive anyway. The reasons why the dead or alive were in the war in the first place isn't really relevant to my point and is another discussion entirely. I was pointing out that the RBL campaign isn't just about remembering the dead, wether they were forced in front of guns or ran gleefully into them after 1960 or whatever. In fact the money Poppy stuff raises is largely useless to them anyway, because they are dead. I'm not going to make any claims for how much of that money is effectively used to help veterans and how much is used to pay for the manufacture of poppies you can see from space to glue to the side of buildings though.

[BlodwynPig]

As the memories of sirens echoed in my mind, I bowed my head and sucked myself off. With respect, of course, with respect.

[steve98]

I wear a poppy for my postman

Is he aware of this? Cos it seems a bit pointless if he isn't.

[Buelligan]

I like to think it reminds people that these young fellows were herded onto the guns to die alone and terribly for, in reality, nothing they would have cared about much.  That those that did manage to come back and the families of those that didn't were reduced to making paper poppies in a bid to eat and be recognised for their immeasurable sacrifice, mostly ignored, abandoned by the most powerful empire on earth (as it was). 

I hope it reminds us never to let this happen to anyone ever again.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWhOO9Q323Y

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41930507

[itsfredtitmus]

In the sea.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/09/no-more-remembrance-days-consign-20th-century-history

Although I don't agree with this wholesale I think it raises an appropriate counterpoint which is that perpetual fixation on past events and hurts is unhealthy, even if it wasn't glorifying the deaths of ordinary people forced into combat, twisting history to suit a narrative etc, which it is.

[Buelligan]

The obvious problem with forgetting the times we've been played for a fool, exploited, lied to, screwed over, slaughtered for nothing ignored in agony in a muddy field that no one cares about whilst they take our taxes to pay for the shells and the shell-manufacturers grow rich, is that it can happen again. 

Rather than forgetting, I think there's room for a little righteous anger and a solid gold determination not to be played again (and not to stand by cheering when it's being done to anyone else).

Anyway, I'm off to lay my olive branch on the village memorial before work.

[DistressedArea]

If I don't want to forget something, I make a list:

1. Onions
2. Rice
3. Garlic
4. Cheese
5. Horrors of War

[Paul Calf]

We remember service personnel killed in all conflicts with the poppy, not just World War One.

Which is precisely why I don't wear one any more. Remembrance has become a death cult, canonising the very thing it was intended to mourn, repudiate and ultimately discourage. It's been hijacked by the modern military to fund and support unjust wars of aggression for power and profit and it's an insult to the memory of the dead of both WWI and WWII.