Abuse for not being silent for remembrance

And right in the middle, one minute in, the announcer on the train I was on came over the PA in his best Birmingham accent, while everything else was still dead silent, and politely informed us that the train was the 11:04 to Birmingham New Street, and where it was calling.

The guy sitting next to me stood up after the 2 minute silence, and told the guard on the train that if the announcer didn't get on the mic and apologise, he would stick his hand where the sunlight didn't shine and pull the announcer's windpipe out through there.

Sure enough, we got an apology over the microphone, but not before this guy got thrown off the train for abusing a member of staff.

I don't get how a supposed remembrance of peace can make people so angry and aggressive, and i think its sad its got that way. People should remember sure, but abusing others for using their free will is being dictated over. People can remember in other ways, or spend other times of the year contemplating war victims, I don't see how not spending a specific two minutes makes you a bad person.

For instance a person could have relatives who died in the war, visit their grave multiple times of the year, who are we to say they are "immoral" or "shameless" for not spending an extra two minutes in contemplation, they've lost the same if not more than us.

You don't get it. Its not the fact that he ignored the 2 minutes silence, its the fact that he ruined it for everyone else (this applies to both examples)

If you want a guarantee of silence, go somewhere private. Expecting everyone to be quiet in a public place on command is exactly the sort of oppression that romanticised versions of the people being remembered were supposedly fighting against.

Oh, and guys - the silence is not remembering WAR. It's about commemorating ALL (military AND civilian) who have died in conflict. It's not some nationalistic 'ritual' or war glorifying exercise as many of you seem to think. It's a simple act of remembrance, for the fallen.

Its respect for the dead, idiot. Expecting people to give up 2 minutes a year, a mere 1/262800th of there time on earth is not autocracy, its basic human civility and decency.

And I can be positive that if you asked a war veteran what they thought of the silence, you would find they all disagree with odious wannabe liberal ideas such as yours.

Oh, p.s. its nice to see your silence on the whole American prisons and Concentration camps issue - I guess you've realised you're oh so wrong.

It wouldn't matter if it was a second or a year. Forcing your viewpoint onto others is authoritarian. The exact level of distress caused by doing so is irrelevant.


Well of course real veterans wouldn't, because they weren't actually fighting for freedom or liberalism at all, but the right to chemically castrate war heroes for the crime of enjoying relations with people of the same sex


Not really, I just realised that you're one of those people who actually quantify human life in terms of worth, and nothing I say would ever change your viewpoint on that, no matter how wrong it is, so it's not really worth my trouble trying.

So is forcing the viewpoint that murdering a baby is wrong and imprisoning the person guilty of this authoritarian? Afterall, thats "Forcing your viewpoint onto others"

I have no idea what your on about in the second paragraph, I suspect its a lame way of avoiding the fact that war veterans cherish rememberance day as a time of reflection.

Since when did I say I quantified human life in terms of orth. You are trying to say Auschwitz and Gitmo are as worse as each other. Yet as I said, 141 people dying versus between 1 and 3 million gives it up a bit. Plus theres the fact that the conditions in Guantanamo are at least survivable in, compared to a concentration camp where many died whilst being transported ther, let alone once inside. You accuse me of trivialising Gitmo? Then I accuse you of trivialising the deaths of 6 million men, women and children.

And before you say that Gitmo is worse on an ideological basis due to the perversion of the ideals of the USA and the Western world, I will remind you that you don't believe in ideals. Afterall, you dismiss the ones that form the basis of Rememberance Day.

So is forcing the viewpoint that murdering a baby is wrong and imprisoning the person guilty of this authoritarian? Afterall, thats "Forcing your viewpoint onto others"

I have no idea what your on about in the second paragraph, I suspect its a lame way of avoiding the fact that war veterans cherish rememberance day as a time of reflection.

Since when did I say I quantified human life in terms of orth. You are trying to say Auschwitz and Gitmo are as worse as each other. Yet as I said, 141 people dying versus between 1 and 3 million gives it up a bit. Plus theres the fact that the conditions in Guantanamo are at least survivable in, compared to a concentration camp where many died whilst being transported ther, let alone once inside. You accuse me of trivialising Gitmo? Then I accuse you of trivialising the deaths of 6 million men, women and children.

And before you say that Gitmo is worse on an ideological basis due to the perversion of the ideals of the USA and the Western world, I will remind you that you don't believe in ideals. Afterall, you dismiss the ones that form the basis of Rememberance Day.

Saying 141 deaths of potentially innocent people is worse than 6 million is quantifying human life. You can argue whether it's appropriate to, I suppose, but I don't see how you're able to claim that it isn't.

Straw man. Talking doesn't hurt anyone, at worst the uptight ones get a annoyed.


I'm talking about the fact that the country they were defending wasn't so rosy and Alan Turing is a perfect example of why.


Saying 141 deaths of potentially innocent people is worse than 6 million is quantifying human life. You can argue whether it's appropriate to, I suppose, but I don't see how you're able to claim that it isn't.


I've never said Gitmo was worse. I'm saying we're not really any better than Nazi Germany, just bad in different ways.

of course killing 1,000,000 people is worse than one as more people are devastated by it (families etc)

lol whut?

I'm not a utilitarian, I'm an individualist. As far as I'm concerned, one act of murder is just as bad as a million.


Already gave plenty of reasons why. Nazi Germany wasn't hell for everyone either, for that matter.

I'm not a utilitarian, I'm an individualist. As far as I'm concerned, one act of murder is just as bad as a million.


Already gave plenty of reasons why. Nazi Germany wasn't hell for everyone either, for that matter.

I'm quiet in a cinema to allow others to watch the film in peace.

Was with parents yesterday in Tesco cafe and during a conversation we lost track of time. Some guy came up to us and told us to be quiet as it was a silence.

My dad said why and was accused of having no respect for war dead he was cold cruel, uncaring etc, then a woman came over and called my family disgusting and cold and heartless.

My dad was trying to just say that he didnt think that two minutes made a difference, and hes ex army and lost his brother due to war, his dad, his great uncle etc, and asked these two if they had ever been in the army and they said no but somehow they were better people for being quiet for 2 minutes as they had more respect!

My dad respects the memory of the dead but doesnt think it makes much difference being quiet for 2 minutes but remembering them in different ways.

But he and my family are seen as disgusting because of that!

Is this right?

Please justify this. You are starting to amuse me now, its like a crazy mixture of pity, disbelief and contempt, but at the sam time you're so overwhelmingly stupid one cannot help but laugh...

Look at it like this; murder is pretty much the greatest moral evil one can commit. Now, with that in mind, given how awful it really is, there's a sort of threshold, or ceiling of sorts. In simple terms, once you've one done instance of the worst thing you could possibly do, you've sunk as low as it's possible to sink and more murders won't force you any deeper.