If you don’t want to observe two minute silence- don’t be out

[Mokel]

Every Remembrance Sunday and Nov 11th, when I worked at retail, we did a tannoy announcement with 5 min, 2 min before to inform customers that the store will be observing the 2 min silence. Then another to start it.

Every time there were customers who kept talking. Plus one time a woman in her 50s shouted “why can’t anyone serve me some fucking fags?” Everyone just looked at her. Some had the courage to say how disrespectful she was once the silence ended.

If you are unable or refuse to observe the silence at 11am today or tomorrow, please don’t be in a public place.

Exactly.

Sometimes I forget about the silence, and I dont always observe it. However I respect the right of shop workers to show respect if they wish and it was very rude for someone to demand they were served then. Not everyone can afford a day off and if they want to observe the silence they should be able to do so.

Some people dont have a lot of choice over when they can do their shopping either - but 2 minutes is not a massive time to expect someone to show consideration for others. I wouldnt glare at someone walking around/ putting items in a trolley in a supermarket but I would if they demanded to be served.

🤔are you a professional at missing the point?

Then OP shouldn't have said unable. You can't shut those who can't be silent away

It doesn't hurt to be silent for a couple of minutes. It would be nice to hear a little less about the right to waffle on constantly and a little more about consideration and thoughtfulness towards others.

There's also the luxury of being an edgelord who thinks war is government mass murder or something with never a thought of defence. Imagine if Hitler as all his atrocities from huge to small went unchallenged in 1939! Auschwitz and Oradour-sur-Glane would be going on everywhere today. A little reflection on how downright lucky we are would do many people an awful lot of good.

Well for info some business still try to make the effort….for info during the silence and a during buffer a few minutes either side Heathrow usually has a ban in place on engine starting and aircraft pushbacks and Air Traffic try to avoid any overflight of central London during the same period.

It's not missing the point. It's yet another example of how people with disabilities can be misunderstood or just treated as though it should be obvious they aren't included in language. It isn't. unable covers a multitude of reasons

The fag shopper is clearly fictional

A 'silence' is a communal act. If someone makes noise during a silence they have stopped someone else from observing it.
But not everyone will want to observe it and they have the right not to. We can't co-erce people.
A compromise is to expect silence at organised parades but not censure people who choose not to observe it in shops, railway carriages etc
Of course people who cannot observe it due to disability should do as they please, attend parades, shops, whatever.

I'm not responsible for what OP said, neither have I advocated shutting people away.

I've always wanted to ask- how does that work exactly (the not believing in war)? If, for example, your country is invaded you think it shouldn't be defended?

OP said unable.

The only people unable to be silent for two minutes are those who are unable to be silent because of disability or neuro divergence etc.

Suggesting that those who are unable to stay silent should stay home is ableist, regardless of anyone's feelings about remeberance.

I think if people want to formerly observe the 2 mins remembrance in complete silence, they need to attend one of the thousands of church services up and down the country specifically for this purpose, or stay at home if they want guaranteed silence. If its so so so important to you why are you in the middle of your supermarket shop.

I don't think its reasonable to impose a 2 minute silence on supermarket shoppers who cannot be obligated to participate - not everyone agrees that its the right way to commemorate the sacrifices made.

I completely agree.
So many pious people who in actual fact don’t do anything to help anyone except themselves but wear a poppy as if this makes them a good person.

This, unfortunately. It's much easier to not talk for two minutes than it is to stay home so you're not out in public at 11am. If you cared enough to stay home out of respect for others you'd care enough to stay quiet.

Thinking of my granddads, both working class London smokers who fought in WW2 and also thinking of my Nans foul mouth, I think the lot of them would have found the woman demanding fags hilarious. One of my later memories was of my Nan and my great aunt pissing themselves laughing at her upstairs neighbour who was sweeping the road with nothing on from the waist down. What I’m getting at is that all those that lost their lives in the wars were walking, talking floored humans who were up for a laugh and lived their lives in colour, not black and white. They were not forlorn weeping angel figures.

I worked in retail for years, and yes there were always those that carried on while we all observed the silence, but as long as we take the time to pay respect ourselves, then there is nothing we can do about the oddballs that don’t, who can explain what goes through peoples minds, but all those soldiers probably would laugh and roll their eyes at them and be grateful to the rest of us, mostly I guess they would have just liked to have been left the fuck alone and not sent to pointless wars caused by a few governmental jerks Willy waving.

What we need to address is how soldiers are treated after war has spat them out. There’s a brilliant documentary called’ they shall not grow old” that not only shows these people to have been just like us, there are also real taped interviews, and one of the saddest things I heard was that when they returned to civilian life, nobody wanted to know of their experience, they had to find each other to talk of it, everyone else just wanted them to shut up and get on!

As my nan always put it “what a load of old balls!”

Most of us are definitely speaking from the luxury of not being alive at a time when our liberty or our country's borders are under threat.

I've always wanted to ask- how does that work exactly (the not believing in war)? If, for example, your country is invaded you think it shouldn't be defended?

Not believing in war is different to not agreeing with war. I know wars happen, I don’t think war is a good thing and dislike the concept of the “glorious dead”. I don’t think there is any glory in death. I do take part in acts of remembrance because it is important, for me, to remember lives lost and ruined on all sides by acts of war.

Except nobody has said anything of the sort. 🫣

How disgusting and disrespectful if anyone was to continue talking and ignored it

Agreed 100%.

Thought you were going 🤣

Less than a minute to go.
Let's just respect the silence.
Pleass

This.

It may be nonsense to some people but it's nice appreciative gesture for all those who have lost their lives for the country. Why would you not respect that?

I'm assuming you were born before 1998?