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!

I used to know someone who refused to wear a poppy because she ‘doesn’t agree with war’! Actual and real she said that! She was quite a nice person in lots of ways and certainly not stupid but her opinions were often very skewed.

If liberals/hippies are the people who, whilst not being offended, choose to wear a different course poppy, why is it the Muslim community getting all of the stick?! It makes me so angry!

You can't really legislate for urban myth, can you? The only option is to be very patient about rebutting any mad nonsense that you come across.

I've had primary school children (not reception) ask me what my poppy is, which is a bit worrying, but never ever heard anybody express any negative sentiments although I know there are some die-hard hippies who have solid political objections to it. As a Daily Mail outrage campaign it's even less plausible than the War On Christmas bollocks.

I can understand why it's an issue in NI.

Well, surely you can see why it might be an issue in mainland Britain then, given the Irish diaspora?

lol at the 'you can't do or say anything without causing offence these days' brigade who are paranoid that they're supposed to be saying 'happy holidays' and put a tree up rebelliously as opposed to joyfully. No you knob, you just can't get away with racist, sexist, ableist and homophobic insults masquerading as 'jokes' anymore. And not a moment too bloody soon.

LittleMissBrainy - that's exactly what my friend used to say. She got angry because I had a poppy in my car

Quite contentious in parts of Glasgow. Similar reasons for NI I imagine.

Nope, never met anyone offended by a poppy.

I'm Irish so would never wear a poppy - I'm not offended by it but could imagine some people here being offended. It's seen as glorifying those who fought against Irish freedom (so 1916 executioners, Black and Tans etc).

I used to be friendly with people who wouldn't wear poppies but that was 30 years ago. Middle class, left wing, protester types to generalise.

Now some of them have influential jobs in law and universities.

The other anti poppy thing that I have only seen in newspaper court reports have been folk prosecuted for vandalising poppy displays.

There was a clear security operation at a WW1 outdoor memorial service in a city I was visiting: it shows that such displays are seem as a target nowadays. Very sad times.

I didn't mee the poppy burning guy, but I was inside a conference centre while all that was going on outside - with the Princess Royal in attendance. We could hear all the commotion during the 2 minute silence - the security peeps were looking a tad wary I must say. It was a bit intimidating!

Never actually met anyone who is offended, although I've known people who chose not to wear one, and others who wore a purple one (which if I recall correctly was meant to commemorate animals lost at war) I stead of or as well as a red one.

Nope not offended here and I'm Irish so pretty much was at various stages of war with the uk for 600 years..
people want to remember their military dead and I respect that..

pinky that also happened on our local FB page - you don't live near Cambourne do you?

I'm not offended by the red poppy and haven't met people who are. However, I do know quite a few people, myself included, who won't donate to the RBL. That doesn't mean we're offended by them.

If I'm asked to buy a poppy I just politely refuse. No big deal.

I do know a lot of older veterans who don't like what the poppy has become. It used to be a reminder of why people shouldn't go to war, a reminder of the tremendous human cost. These days it's often presented as more of a show of support for the military as an institution, and is often tied up with the kind of unthinking 'patriotism' many veterans died trying to stamp out. My great grandfather was a veteran who used to sell poppies, but eventually he became disgusted by the way it was co-opted to be more than a symbol of loss.

I've not met anyone who's had any kind of problem with what the poppy is supposed to represent, just people with a problem with what others (like OP's grandmother) use it for.

Weatherspoons has had to put out a post on twtter as a spoof account has some people worked up about this.

It seems I'm a die hard hippie then...
No i will not buy a red poppy or wear one. And for a lot fo different rasons.
If someone is asking me why, I will explain.
I'm not going to go round telling people they are wrong or stopping them to do so.
Because I'm aware that if I have my ideas, so are other people and that there is no reason why I would be more right than them. I do expect, though, for them to accept that there is no reason for them to be more right than me too though.

I've met some, usually older ex soldiers, who find anzac day and the like has turned into a glorification of war, rather than a sobre time to reflect on how we ought to be careful not to slaughter each other. They no longer wish to wear the poppy or march as they feel we have forgotten the meaning of 'lest we forget'. It's not about being proud of war, that's for sure.

No, but this year out Poppy Box at work contains wooden crescents as well as crosses and our receptionist was very quick to point out how “disgusted” she was with this.

oops, what kmc said

Yanbu
Never.
That wetherspoons thing was a hoax - I got that as a message, as well as keep seeing the memes.
I've yet to meet anyone offended by Christmas either.

My dsis is a Poppy - she's certainly offended a shit load of people over the years.

A child was taken out of a local school after a Remembrance Day assembly. It wasn't religious at all but the parents decided to home school.

My ex refused to buy one and hated me buying them for my kids too

Thanks all. This thread has been eye opening. There are some people who take issue with the poppy. This is then used to fuel anti Muslim propaganda despite most of the objectors not being Muslim.

EmmaGrundy ...maybe