Post: #1

'Those cheering on the likes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen have no right to wear the poppy this year says James O'Brien.'

Saw this a lot on Twatter this morning. And a Breitbart story has just popped up about it;

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11...st-obrien/

Story intro;

Quote:James O’Brien, the angry LBC talk show host who has a built a career on saying dumb, left-wing things in order to get attention has found a new way to be annoying: he has announced that conservatives have no right to wear Remembrance poppies because fascism.

This comes on top of me noticing that hardly anyone seems to wear a red poppy around the office anymore. At present, it's just myself and one other bloke.

I'm not too sure how big poppy-wearing is around the world, so in case anyone is wondering why it's worn;

Quote:In Flanders Fields describes the first sign of life after death - small red plants that grew on the graves of soldiers buried in northern France and Belgium during World War I.

Two days before the armistice agreement was signed, Ms Michael bought and then pinned a red poppy to her coat. She gave other poppies out to ex-servicemen at the YMCA headquarters in New York where she worked.

The poppy was officially adopted by the American Legion at a conference two years later. At the same conference, a French woman named Madame E Guerin saw an opportunity for orphans and widows to raise money in France by selling the poppies.

Since then, they have become an international symbol of remembering fallen soldiers, especially in Commonwealth countries.

I've put this in Politics, but I've never thought wearing a poppy for Remembrance Week as being especially political, at least until recently. It's just a tradition I remember from being a kid and have always done it, thinking 'where's the harm in remembering the fallen?'

I don't even have a strong opinion on those who don't wear it. I couldn't care less, that's up to them and I honestly respect their choice not to wear it. But slagging off people who vote Right for wearing it?! Saying they don't have the right?! I guarantee the majority of our boys who died in France would be thought of as 'Right Wing' by today's standards.

In addressing that LBC tosser in the original tweet, I have a few thoughts, but can't beat what one commenter put on that article;

'This is the left trying to take something else away from us. The dehumanisation, the tyranny on our speech etc.. now they are trying to say we don't even have the right to honour our own war dead.

Think about that one.. Because it is us, our relatives, sons, brothers and communities who they come running to when they need more soldiers as cannon fodder.'
- Citizen of Dystopia

Wearing the Poppy has definitely become over the years yet another battleground on which the left are trying to disrupt and control the narrative. They are trying their best to distort what should be a simple, traditional token of respect and appreciation for those who died for us, into as divisive an issue as they can.

Post: #2

It's still sold and worn down here.

Post: #3

As a kid, I can remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) giving these out in exchange for a donation. My grandparents wore them. But this tradition died out in the late 70s in the U.S., too many wars I guess.

Doesn't it date to WWI, rather than WWII?

Post: #4

(11-02-2018 07:27 AM)Hypno Wrote:  As a kid, I can remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) giving these out in exchange for a donation. My grandparents wore them. But this tradition died out in the late 70s in the U.S., too many wars I guess.

Doesn't it date to WWI, rather than WWII?

I must admit to being surprised that it's not big in the US. Somehow, I assumed that it was worldwide but it seems to be more of a British Commonwealth thing (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc).

I think it's now marketed as remembering the dead in all wars, but yeah, it originally stemmed from Flanders Fields in WW1.

They always cost me a fortune, cos I keep losing them (just held on with a little pin) and end up buying loads every year.

Post: #5

Ranked somewhere below pedophiles in my book are those who recycle their poppies from one year to the next...

I thought it was strictly a Commonwealth thing myself.

Post: #6

http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html

IN FLANDERS FIELDS POEM
The World’s Most Famous WAR MEMORIAL POEM
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae


In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

On May 2, 1915, John McCrae’s close friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell. That evening, in the absence of a Chaplain, John McCrae recited from memory a few passages from the Church of England’s “Order of the Burial of the Dead”. For security reasons Helmer’s burial in Essex Farm Cemetery was performed in complete darkness.

The next day, May 3, 1915, Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson was delivering mail. McCrae was sitting at the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the YserCanal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, Belgium.
In Flanders Fields Poem

As John McCrae was writing his In Flanders Fields poem, Allinson silently watched and later recalled, “His face was very tired but calm as he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."

Within moments, John McCrae had completed the “In Flanders Fields” poem and when he was done, without a word, McCrae took his mail and handed the poem to Allinson.

Allinson was deeply moved:

“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

Post: #7

I always buy a new poppy each year, the whole point is to donate to help ex-servicemen. Although with this year being the 100th anniversary they are doing special poppies and I managed to get my hands on one, so I will be keeping that.

Poppies, it's a weird one in the socio-political sphere. I get the feeling that many of our loving overlords simply wear them because they know how out of favour with their voters they will become if they don't.

I actually noticed that many British-born but not ethnically British people don't wear a poppy, I wonder if this is because they don't feel as if the remembrance 'belongs' to them. I actually wouldn't have a problem if they did wear a poppy, I'm just curious as to why they don't. If you're in London in early November, a poppy is a great way of identifying who's actually English or not.

Post: #8

I wish there was some kind of faggy way to wear a poppy such that you were demonstrating support for servicemen but not for the shitty bullshit wars foisted on them.

Post: #9

Britchard, yep. Exactly. While this doesn't strictly apply to everyone, definite trends have developed among ethnic and political lines over the years. The fact that the poppy wearers are (mostly) native English hasn't gone un-noticed and this gives our rulers a problem; the poppy is too powerful a symbol for them to disavow and attack directly.

Post: #10

(11-02-2018 09:52 AM)Richard Turpin Wrote:  Britchard, yep. Exactly. While this doesn't strictly apply to everyone, definite trends have developed among ethnic and political lines over the years. The fact that the poppy wearers are (mostly) native English hasn't gone un-noticed and this gives our rulers a problem; the poppy is too powerful a symbol for them to disavow and attack directly.

It's something of a mystery, really. I am puzzled by how little the wearing of the poppy has been adopted by the hordes of Maghrebians and Chinese that have become Canadian citizens. Is it possible they don't give a shit?

Post: #11

(11-02-2018 10:00 AM)ed pluribus unum Wrote:  

(11-02-2018 09:52 AM)Richard Turpin Wrote:  Britchard, yep. Exactly. While this doesn't strictly apply to everyone, definite trends have developed among ethnic and political lines over the years. The fact that the poppy wearers are (mostly) native English hasn't gone un-noticed and this gives our rulers a problem; the poppy is too powerful a symbol for them to disavow and attack directly.

It's something of a mystery, really. I am puzzled by how little the wearing of the poppy has been adopted by the hordes of Maghrebians and Chinese that have become Canadian citizens. Is it possible they don't give a shit?

Yeah, I mean, it boils down to ancestral worship. Remembering and honouring your tribe. If you don't feel a connection to those who died in the trenches and don't see them as belonging to your tribe, then you won't understand or care about buying a poppy.

Maybe this is why they try to widen the appeal. They can't have it specifically about one group of people, even though it is specifically about one group of people.

Post: #12

This practice is mostly a custom in the Commonwealth/Former B.E. so Yankees may not understand the idea of the poppy.

I like to wear a poppy, and it is good this time of year as veterans, and other military volunteers are out and about collecting donations, so it is a good time to have chats and conversations with them.

When I was growing up and a hardcore lefty and borderline communist I detested the military considerably. Now, as an older, more rational man, I have a great deal of respect for people who serve. I can disconnect hardworking men (and some women) who sacrifice in giving service over the petty politics and machinery that can hijack the military. The institution of the military is important and should be honoured appropriately. Not many careers where you sign up to potentially die and gilded soy people who are haters seem to forget that their comfort and ease of life is made possible by these very folks who sign-up to potentially risk it all.

In this day and age with so many haters. Just telling anyone in the military that you want to thank them for serving will bring a big smile to their face. They get shitted on lots, but they need to remember that they have lots of people that respect what they do out there.

Post: #13

In the U.S., following the Viet Nam war, it was unpopular to support the military. That only changed after Reagan.

(The commonwealth countries were not in viet nam like the U.S. was with the draft, so its a different history)

Now, the miliatary pays the NFL for propoganda and its unpopular to not support the military. There is a great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode last season about this "Thank you for your service".

Post: #14

Koski i pretty much changed like you, me being an anarcho lefty punk. Until my friends went to war.

Much respect for the gents who served and the people who support them.

We actually have a Veterans Charity Beer Fest this weekend.

Cool thing is they'll have vets from WW2, Korea, and Vietnam giving lectures and Q & A.

Even weapons, old pictures, and even Tanks - I geek on shit like this.

Post: #15

It was always done where I grew up here in the US. I'm sure I've seen it in recent years, but can't say specifically where or when. I've bought them on occasion, but I haven't always bought them. After reading this thread, I will do so in the future. I support veterans in general, but I never thought much about the poppy thing until now. In particular, I didn't know about the poem and the way the tradition started.

Post: #16

Dont listen or read anything about Cuck o' brian. Trust me on this. The guy is the definition of "fucking white male!" but is able to grandstand for 3 hours every weekday hammering into peoples heads they are racist for thinking the way they do if they arent in love with migrants, there isn't a problem with stop and search targeting mostly non-white people etc.

The fact he has a primetime slot on a big radio show just shows the state of affairs in British media.

Post: #17

I wear a poppy (when in Canada) because most of my traceable male relatives of a certain period are in Empire/Commonwealth War Graves. Literally. Boer War. WWI. WWII. Even Suez.

So, I wear a poppy to remember them, because nobody else is going to. I also like to give my small donation to the local Legion people. They run a good but crumbling organization. And, they are (often) some of the only people around that you can speak your mind to and not have to worry about hearing some PC bullshit spat back at you.

As to this clown of a host... I have some of my great-grandfather's journals in my possession. He fought and was seriously wounded in WWI. He then "retired" to Canada. Based on his writings, there exists no political party in either Canada or the UK that would be far enough to the right for him to join. He would have no political home in these countries today. Those are the kind of guys that we (at least nominally) wear the poppy for.

As to the Chinese in Canada wearing a poppy, that makes me chuckle. Didn't my people and your people fight a few very serious wars, of which that flower might be very emblematic?

Post: #18

I guarantee that the people who fought and died in WW1 (and 2) had a damn sight more common with the fascists Le Pen, Orban and Trump than any of the lefty brigade screaming "fascist", if you could time travel them forward to speak with them.

Post: #19

I would be more worried about at this moment about what the lefties are going to wear into their next war with Russia, aside from their armoury of gimp masks and multicoloured dildos which is running at an all time low thanks to demand outstripping supply.


Gimp masks and leather pants don't keep a man warm in Stalingrad.

Post: #20

(11-02-2018 10:53 AM)Hypno Wrote:  In the U.S., following the Viet Nam war, it was unpopular to support the military. That only changed after Reagan.

(The commonwealth countries were not in viet nam like the U.S. was with the draft, so its a different history)

Now, the miliatary pays the NFL for propoganda and its unpopular to not support the military. There is a great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode last season about this "Thank you for your service".

Trump is going to make the military popular and great again with the Space Force.

50 years from now. . .

a small alcove window looks over the Jupiter horizon, a young carefree boy is in his pijamas and curled up in his bed. A small reading light casts a warm yellow glow. The boy looks up at an old man, a worn face carved from granite, and sitting up straight with a steel-backed spine.

"Granpappy, tell me about the Space Force"

There was a long pause, then Granpappy's low gravely voice spoke. "I was so young then. . ." Granpappy looks down at the great swirling clouds. A single tear runs down Granpappy's face as his eyes meet those of his young grandson. "I've seen things you wouldn't believe."

Post: #21

(11-02-2018 04:54 PM)eljeffster Wrote:  

(11-02-2018 10:53 AM)Hypno Wrote:  In the U.S., following the Viet Nam war, it was unpopular to support the military. That only changed after Reagan.

(The commonwealth countries were not in viet nam like the U.S. was with the draft, so its a different history)

Now, the miliatary pays the NFL for propoganda and its unpopular to not support the military. There is a great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode last season about this "Thank you for your service".

Trump is going to make the military popular and great again with the Space Force.

50 years from now. . .

a small alcove window looks over the Jupiter horizon, a young carefree boy is in his pijamas and curled up in his bed. A small reading light casts a warm yellow glow. The boy looks up at an old man, a worn face carved from granite, and sitting up straight with a steel-backed spine.

"Granpappy, tell me about the Space Force"

There was a long pause, then Granpappy's low gravely voice spoke. "I was so young then. . ." Granpappy looks down at the great swirling clouds. A single tear runs down Granpappy's face as his eyes meet those of his young grandson. "I've seen things you wouldn't believe."

Hey Dad, I can't see so good. Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?

Post: #22

(11-02-2018 05:52 PM)RIslander Wrote:  

(11-02-2018 04:54 PM)eljeffster Wrote:  [quote='Hypno' pid='1879426' dateline='1541174014']
In the U.S., following the Viet Nam war, it was unpopular to support the military. That only changed after Reagan.

(The commonwealth countries were not in viet nam like the U.S. was with the draft, so its a different history)

Now, the miliatary pays the NFL for propoganda and its unpopular to not support the military. There is a great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode last season about this "Thank you for your service".

Trump is going to make the military popular and great again with the Space Force.

50 years from now. . .

a small alcove window looks over the Jupiter horizon, a young carefree boy is in his pijamas and curled up in his bed. A small reading light casts a warm yellow glow. The boy looks up at an old man, a worn face carved from granite, and sitting up straight with a steel-backed spine.

"Granpappy, tell me about the Space Force"

There was a long pause, then Granpappy's low gravely voice spoke. "I was so young then. . ." Granpappy looks down at the great swirling clouds. A single tear runs down Granpappy's face as his eyes meet those of his young grandson. "I've seen things you wouldn't believe."

Hey Dad, I can't see so good. Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?

Post: #23

A few years back I flew to Bangkok at around this time of the year, early November. I had my poppy on as I went to the airport and put it away going through customs and getting into the city. On November 11th I remembered that I had it, so I put it on and went for lunch near my hotel which was in Nana area, the epicentre of whoredom in the whore capital of the world. As I was walking down the street this old Scottish dude starts yelling and waving at me "Hey mate come here" so I walk into this whore bar where he was slamming beers on the patio and say hello, he said he had to buy me a beer for wearing a poppy. Turns out he had just come from a war ceremony at the British embassy, he had on a blue blazer with some memorial type pins on it, I forget if he was a vet or not. He was an engineer in the oil industry in Indonesia, on his days off getting wasted and banging Thai whores. We had a good chat about politics, the Commonwealth, oil industry and the different venereal disease we were exposing ourselves to by banging whores in BKK.

Post: #24

(11-02-2018 07:39 AM)Richard Turpin Wrote:  

(11-02-2018 07:27 AM)Hypno Wrote:  As a kid, I can remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) giving these out in exchange for a donation. My grandparents wore them. But this tradition died out in the late 70s in the U.S., too many wars I guess.

Doesn't it date to WWI, rather than WWII?

I must admit to being surprised that it's not big in the US. Somehow, I assumed that it was worldwide but it seems to be more of a British Commonwealth thing (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc).

I think it's now marketed as remembering the dead in all wars, but yeah, it originally stemmed from Flanders Fields in WW1.

They always cost me a fortune, cos I keep losing them (just held on with a little pin) and end up buying loads every year.

I grew up in DC during the 80s and never saw those poppies.

The first time that I ever saw them was when I did my undergrad in Ontario, Canada in the mid 90s.

I always assumed that it was a Commenwealth "Flanders Field" thing.

It makes me sad that America once did this too but doesn't anymore.

Maybe they still do it in Kansas City:



One of America's most underrated pieces of art.

Seriously, those halls on the sides are extraordinary. The museum in the base is incredible too.

Post: #25

Yesterday in my wonderfully enriched home city, a taxi driver was sacked for refusing to accept the fare (i.e. wouldn't take the job) of a person transporting paper poppies.

Make of that what you will.