No 2 minutes silence at gym. AIBU

[Mushypeasandchipstogo]

I went to my gym today for a class in the swimming pool. I had totally expected the class to finish just before 11am so that those who wanted to could observe the two minutes silence. By 10.55am it was apparent that this was not going to happen so I just took myself out of the pool and sat in the changing room by myself.
So as to not drip feed, I am from a Forces Family and the wrong side of 50! I found this totally disrespectful of the instructor. He could have, at the very least, mentioned that he had intended to not stop before the class. AIBU to be upset by this?

@CupCalamity

I feel the same OP, and I'm not from a Forces family and the other side of 50 to you. Do we really live in such a self centred world that we can't spend 2 minutes thinking of others? So sad. I always observe it, it's really not hard. It should just be a given. In my workplace we all stopped and joined together in the waiting room for it.

Do we really live in such a self centred world that we can't spend 2 minutes thinking of others?

"Betty needs CPR, Dave, carry on."

"Sorry, Dave, I can't. Cup from Mumsnet says I'm self centred unless I stop what I'm doing at exactly 11am to stand in silence."

People could get out if they wished. But if people have paid for an hours class then i think they should have the option to receive it.

YABVU
If you really wanted to observe the 2 min silence, you would have made sure you were in an environment to do that to start with. A swimming pool is not one!

This is why the Royal British Legion can go fuck itself. Remembrance used to be poignant, ‘never again’. Now look at the shit that they share.
I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped some time after the millennium because of this kind of jingoistic bullshit.

This piece makes the same point very well;
anotherangrywoman.com/2015/11/04/i-dont-wear-poppies-and-this-image-perfectly-encapsulates-why/

@DismantledKing There's nothing wrong with that. Some kid's parents are veterans and some want to be soldiers. And that's ok.

[quote me4real]@DismantledKing There's nothing wrong with that. Some kid's parents are veterans and some want to be soldiers. And that's ok.[/quote]
No it isn’t. It’s not remembrance, which is what the RBL is supposed to be all about. It’s promotion of militarism, it’s literally the opposite of what they’re supposed to be about.

[quote me4real]@DismantledKing There's nothing wrong with that. Some kid's parents are veterans and some want to be soldiers. And that's ok.[/quote]
I think you’ve missed the point there.

Fine if parents are veterans or kids want to become soldiers.

But remembrance is fundamentally not the arena for celebrating any of that.

@DismantledKing

This is why the Royal British Legion can go fuck itself. Remembrance used to be poignant, ‘never again’. Now look at the shit that they share. I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped some time after the millennium because of this kind of jingoistic bullshit.

Oh vile 😯

@BeyondOurReef @DismantledKing The thing about the Legion is they value what people who've served have done. They think people serving their country is and was a good thing. This isn't new for the Legion, for instance they had a picture of the Queen up in my local one.

A youngster (or family) saying they want to be a soldier is partly saying what soldiers did and do is something heroic and worth emulating. No one should be pushed into this, obviously.

Of course there's a difference between people being conscripted (not necessarily good if they didn't want to go) and people who choose to serve and choose to accept the risks of that (even in a place where they are supported etc.) Most people think people who choose to serve their country in this way are great- the Legion helps support
these after they retire and so on.

@DismantledKing

This is why the Royal British Legion can go fuck itself. Remembrance used to be poignant, ‘never again’. Now look at the shit that they share. I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped some time after the millennium because of this kind of jingoistic bullshit.

Wow.. Yep, I totally agree. Labelling kids as "future soldiers" is actually pretty sick, and it's got nothing at all to do with remembrance.

[quote me4real]**@BeyondOurReef* @DismantledKing* The thing about the Legion is they value what people who've served have done. They think people serving their country is and was a good thing. This isn't new for the Legion, for instance they had a picture of the Queen up in my local one.

A youngster (or family) saying they want to be a soldier is partly saying what soldiers did and do is something heroic and worth emulating. No one should be pushed into this, obviously.

Of course there's a difference between people being conscripted (not necessarily good if they didn't want to go) and people who choose to serve and choose to accept the risks of that (even in a place where they are supported etc.) Most people think people who choose to serve their country in this way are great- the Legion helps support
these after they retire and so on.[/quote]
The behaviour of the RBL explains why so many people (including plenty on this thread) no longer wear a poppy. They don’t exist to be a recruiting sergeant for the armed forces, the whole point of the poppy is remembrance.
They still never get another penny from me.

Viewing the armed forces as heroic and worth emulating strikes me as missing the point of remembrance entirely.

It wasn’t heroic. It was not anything to emulate. It was a horrendous slaughter and we remember - solemnly - so as to try not to emulate it.

Yes. Lest it happen again.

@XenoBitch

YABVU If you really wanted to observe the 2 min silence, you would have made sure you were in an environment to do that to start with. A swimming pool is not one!

Exactly. The original post (and much of the complaining about this issue) seems to have nothing to do with not being allowed to pay your respects as you would most prefer. It's about expecting everyone else to do the same (and wanting to have that policed by a gym instructor!)

@DismantledKing

This is why the Royal British Legion can go fuck itself. Remembrance used to be poignant, ‘never again’. Now look at the shit that they share. I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped some time after the millennium because of this kind of jingoistic bullshit.

There's a detailed analysis of some of the British Legion's more questionable behaviour, and the reason why they've made poppies problematic, here:

vfpuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/my_name_is_legion-web.pdf

@MurielSpriggs
Thank you, that's a very interesting read

@DismantledKing

This is why the Royal British Legion can go fuck itself. Remembrance used to be poignant, ‘never again’. Now look at the shit that they share. I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped some time after the millennium because of this kind of jingoistic bullshit.

That’s dreadful. Remembrance is about paying tribute to soldiers who’ve died in conflict, about the horrors of war. It’s not a marketing or recruitment campaign for the forces. There are plenty of those campaigns already.