To ask if anyone in rl has ever actually met anyone who is 'offended by a poppy?

[Whatsername17]

My Facebook feed is full of memes declaring that people are going to 'wear their poppy with pride and they don't care who they offend'. My nan is the latest culprit and I've called her out on it. Cue lots of her friends spouting racist bollocks about people not being able to sell them blah blah. My nan spouting shit about what a good heart I have because I can't see the bad in people. I'm 34. I'm not a fucking child. And breathe!

Yes. A friend who wears a white poppy. I was only in my early twenties and didn't really think anyone would be offended by me wearing a poppy but she really attacked me about it. She said I was glorifying war and supporting the slaughter of innocent people around the world today. She does have very strong political ideas.

I wear a red poppy in remembrance of the military personnel who gave up so much to keep Britain a free country. I definitely don’t think a red poppy means you are pro-war, or think it’s to be glorified at all. To me it says it has sometimes been necessary for our military to serve our country in self defence, and they and the horrors they endured for us should be remembered with thanks.

I do take the point that there were many non-military people contributing greatly to the war efforts and that they should also be remembered. However IMHO the red poppy is specifically about the armed forces. I’d be glad to see some other tradition for all the women and men who served in other ways, whether as medics, farm workers, code breakers and other diverse ways.

I’ve only met one person who wore a white poppy and it was to show they were a pacifist.

I don't think you can start including enemy soldiers! Yes WWI was the sort of war where there was a lot of fellow feeling bw ordinary soldiers on both sides, but WW2 wasn't. And the wars we have fought in the last 20 years certainly aren't like that. Not sure that the people of Iraq want their dead to be commemorated by the poppy as victims of a just war, and I'm certainly not buying poppies to remember the Taliban.

I don't think you can start including enemy soldiers!

Oh I'm with you on that, but all these people saying it isn't to commemorate one army or one side, getting the hump when Irish people wont support it due to issues with the British Army, saying it's overly nationalistic to not want to support it...I mean, it's just ridiculous when you think about it

But the money from the poppy appeal goes to support ex servicemen of a particular army - not all those who were involved, and not people involved in just world war two. It's not supporting all sides

The Remembrance aspect is absolutely about remembering all of "The Fallen".

It's not surprising that a British appeal set up in the immediate aftermath of war (1920ish) was concerned with providing work for the British injured. There were c800,000 British men dead and twice that injured against a population of 45,000. Other countries made efforts for their own injured.

Remember that this is before the EU or the UN and started almost at the same time as the League of Nations. So right at the start of Internationalism (also inspired by the Great War).

It's anachronistic to criticise 100 year old charities for not having a global outlook.

But the purpose WAS remembrance and mourning, not jingoism or celebration of war, and the scope has of course expanded since then.

but all these people saying it isn't to commemorate one army or one side, getting the hump when Irish people wont support it due to issues with the British Army,

Why would anyone get the hump? It's optional. Irish sensitivities make sense. Criticisms that the Poppy Appeal is somehow warmongering or imperialist are just plain wrong, though.

I've never met anyone who is offended by a poppy, Christmas or a bacon sandwich, and I work in an area with a predominately Muslinm population.

I don't wear a poppy because I'm guaranteed to lose it within three minutes of buying it, like I always do, and I hate the thought of it ending up in a puddle when someone else who knows how to attach them with a fucking straight pin like a normal person could buy it instead. I donate to the Poppy Appeal though.

Yes, I have no problem with that @battleax. It's not unreasonable for a British charity to support British people. It's not just commemorating ww2 fallen though, there is a dual purpose, and I respect both for what they are.

What is unreasonable though, is when people have legitimate issues with what some of those troops or army as a whole have done, they are told they're being overly nationalistic or jingoistic. They're not my troops, some certainly fought against my country and my ideals - I want no part of supporting or remembering those people. I don't know why some people seem to have such a problem with it.

If a poppy was out unconnected to the British Legion (and just remembering world war dead), I could go for that.

The problem is, I think, that the far right are trying to appropriate the poppy, just as they have the St George's Cross. And they are doing it by ridiculous stories about people being afraid to wear one. All that Britain First type stuff.

@battleax - if you look back through the thread, you can see some folk have! They are bonkers. And then James McClean and others, and the abuse they get... It's ridiculous really.

Live and let live is whats needed.

The poppy appeal that was set up just after the war, initially only helped Officers. Which is why my long dead GF, who fought in the war, would never support it. He said there were ordinary ex soldiers then in desperate straits, and yet they were raising money for officers.

I've never met anyone who is offended by the poppy. I'm in a very multicultural area and there are poppies on the front of our local buses. Nobody is offended.

I'm anti war and they don't offend me either, although I don't personally wear one.

Bratzy thats not true.

The RBL do not financially assist officers they never have. They are directed to the officers association.
RBL was a collection of 4 other vets charaties and was created to support the none officers and their family.

What is unreasonable though, is when people have legitimate issues with what some of those troops or army as a whole have done, they are told they're being overly nationalistic or jingoistic. They're not my troops, some certainly fought against my country and my ideals - I want no part of supporting or remembering those people. I don't know why some people seem to have such a problem with it.

So you mean in an Irish context? That's bound to be sensitive.

But nevertheless a Poppy is technically for commemorating "the fallen" and not a sign of support for "The British Army". People not institutions.

I think everyone should make their own choice and not criticise each other.

It's being heckled by white Poppy wearers that really gets to me. When did become okay to spout abuse at someone remembering the dead?

The problem is, I think, that the far right are trying to appropriate the poppy, just as they have the St George's Cross. And they are doing it by ridiculous stories about people being afraid to wear one. All that Britain First type stuff.

Well they can get their racist little mitts off, quite honestly.

@Battleax - "The Legion advocates a specific type of Remembrance connected to the British Armed Forces, those who were killed, those who fought with them and alongside them." It's here on their website:
www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/what-we-remember/

Brasty is thinking of the forerunners of the RBL version, it was The Haig Fund, wasn't it?

But that's as relevant now as the pre (and post) women's co-operative version of the white poppy and it's funding of abolitionist campaigning.

So you mean in an Irish context? That's bound to be sensitive.But nevertheless a Poppy is technically for commemorating "the fallen" and not a sign of support for "The British Army". People not institutions.

Technically it is, yes. But when you look at who the money goes to and what some of those fallen may have done, it's not difficult to spot the issue with it. When these things get put out into the world, peoples own beliefs and culture will shape how they look at it.

Tbh, I have never personally been told I'm wrong for feeling the poppy goes against my personal beliefs - just on MN!

Interesting that white poppy wearers have given out to those with red. I've seen on this thread too stories of white poppy wearers being harrassed for it too.

What's your objection they?

I can't remember a Remembrance service for years that hasn't mentioned everyone lost to war. So if the charity aspect of the British charity supports British forces (not the armed services, the forces) what's the issue?

"It's being heckled by white Poppy wearers that really gets to me. When did become okay to spout abuse at someone remembering the dead?"

You were abused by a white poppy wearer? Good lord- where?

How do you mean "where"?

By a church acquaintance (in a pub in the Cotswolds of it makes any difference at all).

Plenty of people seem to wear both so the pockets of antagonism (in either direction) are just hard to fathom.

I have no problem with people wearing a poppy (of any colour). I do however, have a massive problem with being asked why I'm not wearing one.

Oh, right, so one bonkers person. Fair enough. You made it sound like a "thing".

Things that happen to other people are "a thing" too Bertrand I'm not some kind of super-sample of one.

Of course there are going to be individuals who are anti-poppy, or who are ambivalent about them.

However, the implication of these darkly muttered statements about "wearing the poppy despite people getting offended" tends to be that there are groups of people who are taking umbrage at them. In far fright discourse, there's an implication that those groups are from the BME community and that they represent some kind of threat to white cultural identity, perhaps even the withdrawal of the poppy from circulation altogether. It's rubbish, of course, but there are numbers of people who believe this nonsense, along with "All Muslims want to ban Christmas" and all sorts of other racist shit.