Posted something in the off topic forum but think we all need to see it here as well

Lest we forget we will remember them

When we get wet and messy we can go straight to a clean, warm shower. It was a different story for wounded soldiers in the mud

One charity and major national event I support yet the UK gives just a small bit of time aside one morning of the year should have a national day like most countries

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them"

Oh for goodness's sake, this is the most gratingly inappropriate thread I've ever seen on here. "Fetish fans remember the fallen", being sad about WWI/II next to a porn avatar of some boobs? What next, one of you gunging yourselves in red to commemorate the dead while pulling a sad face?

Obviously Remembrance Day is important, I think we all understand that, but this whole thread is distasteful and tonally inappropriate in the extreme - especially "gungedwam"'s comment, which awkwardly and tenuously tries to contrast WAM mudplay with soldiers dying in the mud in WWI. Does it get any worse?

I have to say I think the comment was made in a very kind and caring way and not trying to be sexual at all.
It was just bringing together the subject matter of the Messy Forum and the seriousness of today's events.
I understand why you'd think a mix of the two subjects was disrespectful but it wasn't meant to be.
The bigger picture is that not falling out,going to war isn't what we all want and peace,patience and tolerance is the way forward so less innocent people die or get injured.
So let's not fall out on here.
Lest we forget.
Jessie xxx

Yes, hard to disagree with all that Jessie, but what increasingly wearies me about Remembrance Day is just how intolerant the whole thing is becoming, in our modern world of virtue-signalling and hysteria on social media.

Just to be clear, I have always taken wearing a poppy seriously, and for that matter "lost" a future uncle in 1941, who went down with his Merchant Navy ship aged just 18. However...

What used to be a small, private gesture of respect has become a reason for outrage at anyone who doesn't join in. The freedom that previous generations fought for also covers - sorry folks, but it does - the freedom to not wear a poppy if you don't want to. If a Martian came down to the UK every November they'd probably think that Remembrance Sunday is an annual ritual whereby the media pillory any TV presenter or politician who hasn't followed this odd social custom of wearing a paper flower in their lapel. Would they understand that the whole thing is in fact supposed to be act of commemoration? I doubt it.

Or look at the nonsense about footballers wearing a poppy on their shirts at this time of year, and the hysteria it causes if they don't. The two generations of players, in the 1920s and 1950s, that actually fought in the world wars, and actually lost friends and family, didn't feel the need to do this. That should give people pause, but it doesn't seem to. Even at best, you wonder if football clubs do all this, not out of respect, but because they're fearful of the media reaction if they don't. And that is not what Remembrance Sunday is meant to be about.

So yes, I don't doubt that the OP's intention was sincere, but I can also understand the critical poster's exasperation, ie "even on UMD, too?!".

Interesting piece on the BBC news site yesterday, about how the meaning of poppies is becoming distorted in our virtue-signalling age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-41930507

Dunno what's wrong with the rest of you, veterans give me all kinds of wood

I think this thread needs to be moved to the Off Topic forum. If people want to have a serious debate about remembrance it can take place there without it getting mixed up with posts about getting messy.

Alan

Yeah, if we leave it in the Messy forum I'm gonna end up wanking to your great-great-grandad who fell at Verdun or whatever.

It is funny to me how Veteran's Day is celebrated here on the other side of the pond. Everyone sends the thank you for your service meme's, hell there is even a movie opening this weekend about it. The government does a pomp and circumstance thing and various politicians posting their support on social media. But then when the weekend sales have ended so does thoughts of the vet's. Nothing has been done to help them get the health care they desperately need. In fact, in some cases their health care is about to be cut. There are rooms full of records that need to be digitized to help speed along care that is needed. There are waiting lists to get help that are much too long. Unlike in previous generations, most of our politicians do not have vet's in their families and have no sense of urgency to help them. But they will pander to their veteran constituents and the vet's eat it up and vote them back in. We are currently living under a president that has shown more disrespect for service men than anyone I can think of. There are ways to fix the situations, take the vet's that are homeless or unemployed and let them get to work digitizing records. Give them jobs and a sense of worth. Let them know we haven't forgotten them. Most of them will never see the meme or the words of respect. But all of them will feel the gratitude if we work to improve the care they are given after serving.

If you see a military vet, whether it be here in the U.S. or the U.K. or in Canada, thank them because without them, we wouldn't enjoy the freedoms that sometimes be taken for granted

This is a controversial topic, but I have to agree with Moreslime. I think it has become a bit force fed in recent years by all strands of the media. When I was at secondary school, as a teenager in the 70s, it was a dignified and pretty low key thing, if you wore a poppy, OK, but if you didn't, no one was all that bothered, and remember, World War 2 wasn't all that long ago then, you came across people who had fought in it, or been bombed, all the time.

I think it has become a bit hijacked in the last few years by right wing nationalists too. Also, neither my Dad (Tobruk, followed by 3 years inside The Reich in a prisoner of war camp) nor my Grandad (The Somme) were never really all that bothered about poppies and parades and stuff.

A quiet dignified tribute to war dead is fine, an excuse for flag waving I'm not keen on.