Never forget those who've died for us

The military isn't for defense. It only exists to enforce the governments will. Any country who only has a defense force is just waiting to be conquered.

You missed out the millions of Native Americans that died to make way for your great country (that was built on stolen land) and will never have their land back. And the hundreds of languages and cultures that have been obliterated and forever lost to history.

And the millions of slaves that died on sugar plantations so Europeans could satisfy their sweet tooth.

So yes, I agree we should remember all the people who've died for the US. Good call. I approve.

It is near impossible to find a country that is not on "stolen land." I'll bet that every single Native American tribe had claimed the land they live on through conquering someone else
Humans have been conquering other humans for as long as any record goes.

For sure. It's not like the native inhabitants of the Americas were saints either. That's Disney Pocahontas-level fantasy. The Aztecs and Incas also had empires.

Native Americans committed their share of atrocities too.

Doesn't justify it though.

We can't go back either and bring cultures back.

I also don't think we should just dismiss history cos that's a bit of a copout.

The planet is a living, evolving thing, and that includes the humans who live here.

Sure, get all the phony moral righteousness all rolled up into a big ball and try to use it to explain how the US treated the natives, but it doesn't apply to just us, because that's what humans have been doing to each other since our species became a species. It's nothing new to this continent, or this country.

What about the many more cultures and languages that have died out, mostly through being conquered by other cultures, that had nothing to do with US expansion, and manifest destiny? Yes, it would be nice to force, un-naturally, those cultures and languages to still exist. But it just doesn't work that way. At least with modern technology, we can preserve in digital form, any cultures / languages that are dying out today. It's better than nothing.

As for slavery, wasn't it the UK and the US who were the early, significant countries that banned slavery? If you want to make an argument about the horrors of slaver, go right ahead, because any form of human bondage is horrible. But don't lay the blame with the countries that actually took the first steps to abolish it.

btw, I don't ever see those on the left complaining about current slave trading. Hell, the Brandon administration let over 300K unaccompanied minors into the country, and didn't bother to track them. How many of those poor souls were forced into slavery, or to become a sex slave?

Where's the lefts phony moral outrage against that? Nowhere. When Trump had ICE raid an illegal weed farm here in Taxifornia, and freed some of those poor kids, all the left did was cry fascist for deporting illegals who engaged in slave trading. Think about that for a little while.

IF the left had any consistency as far as any of these issues go, I'd be on their side. But the sad reality is that they only use an issue when they think they can take down Trump. That's no way to behave, let alone behave politically.

So save the phony moral outrage. Nobody is fooled by it.

So I don't represent the "Left". Let's get that out the way. And I sure as hell don't identify as "woke" even though I'm kind of leftwing. I represent myself, and no one else. I don't represent US Democrats, or any other group, because I'm not even American, so the whole US conservative vs Dem thing doesn't apply to me coz I'm a foreigner and can't even vote in your elections.

I represent ME and my opinions only (which are subject to change). So please don't lump me in with some monolithic group of "lefties", let alone American lefties, because I have my own views and I don't fall in line with a lot of things they espouse and can't comment on anything they do.

Now we've got that out the way, I'll just say that I agree with you that humans have been shitty everywhere and I'm not one to think the native peoples of lands that were colonized were saints. Let's not be naive. The "natives" did their fair share of barbarism too.

I still don't approve of what we did.

As for the whole "UK abolished slavery" thing...

I mean, yes, the UK did abolish it, after benefitting massively from it. I don't think they should get some special credit though..

Imagine you have a house party. And at that house party, the guests like to take a shit anywhere they like. They leave turds in the living room. The British start doing it too and actually ramp it up and leave more shits than ever before, shitting all over the house, in the beds, on the sofa, in the garden, on the TV, everywhere. Then a few hours later the British say, "Hang on, this is gross." And they decide to ban it and punish anyone found taking a shit on the floor.

And eventually no one is allowed to take a shit anywhere in the house.

Do the British get credit for banning the practice? After they took the practice, benefitted from it and massively expanded it?

There were also economic and political reasons for abolishing slavery.

So yes, the British ultimately ended it. After massively ramping it up and getting rich from it. Not sure they can be super smug about it tbh.

My only comment is the US banned the slave TRADE in 1808 that didn’t outlaw slavery by the time slavery was banned a ton of other countries including UK had already banned it. The US was kinda late to the game about it

It’s not about taking down Trump. It’s never been. It’s been about what’s right and what’s wrong. Undermining the very constitution our founding fathers created is not a joke. I don’t care if it was Biden if he was doing the same stuff or had done near the same amount id be against him

The UK banned their slave trade in 1808, not the US. Plus despite that supposed ban, the UK still continued it in Australia well into the 20th Century, as in 1970s or even 80s... depending on your source and how you look at it.

Oh my yap by Ma Duece lmao

This post was about the fallen soldiers

While I won’t deny how we went about taking this country might have not been the most ethical we can’t go back on the past tho… so the best we can do is try and make sure it doesn’t happen again

And yes this country was built on slavery and Tobacco and sugar

Yeah. I just like being a pedantic jerk sometimes and hijacking posts about Remembrance Day to bring up older historical events. By all means, honor the WW1 and WW2 soldiers who gave their lives. I'm not opposed to that at all, and I don't have a problem with wearing a red poppy either. (The white poppy is fine by me too.)

I usually wear a red one. Although I guess I don't quite like how it's morphed into commemorating every modern conflict. I wear a poppy on 11 November to remember the fallen soldiers of the Great War(s), and to honor the sayings "never again" and "the war to end all wars".

I'm not here for a celebration of the armed forces in general or UK/US foreign policy. They can have a different day for that. I think we should never forget the sacrifice of soldiers in the Great War(s) (or any war).

But what I think about more recent military interventions in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever are separate. Iraq and Afghanistan were a mistake (read: disaster) in my view and there were casualties on all sides. I don't support war in general. We can honor the fallen soldiers who were just doing their jobs in those conflicts too (and the innocents killed too, of which there are many, especially in Iraq), but I think we should keep 11 November for what it was originally meant for.

Essentially, I wear a red poppy every year to remember my grandparents' generation that lost their lives fighting in WW1/WW2, because I think we should never forget that and it's about basic respect. I don't wear it as a celebration of military intervention in general, in conflicts I don't approve of. I think that's part of what turns off some younger people tbh. I've been to armed forces day parades and they're fun ngl, but that's not why I wear a poppy. If that makes sense.

Bullshit

🤷‍♂️🙃

If it wasn't for those American soldiers, you wouldn't be alive either. In fact, most people in Greater Deutschland (what we call Europe) would have been extirpated for the sake of their master race.

And don't forget the multitude of species that were wiped out when Native Americans got here. There were more species of large animals on the American Prairie than there are in the Serengeti today. Literally. South America not only had just as many also, but many were even more bizarre than the animals in Australia today. Two complete orders of mammals work wiped out in South America. Two. Totally. And others as well.

That doesn't excuse what Europeans did to Native Americans and Africans, it's just the fact that wherever people go, they kill.

Hahahaha, wow you got it bad. Name a land that isn’t “stolen”. The Indians stole the land when they got here and fought over it with others. As long as they had the strength they took and held land like every other nation in the world. Most North American Indians were warriors. Not some poor victim. They allied with the French against the British, who violated many treaties, then they allied with the British against the Americans. They lost along with the British. They acted like enemies and were treated as such. Their lack of immunity to European diseases eviscerated many populations. Go ahead and name a land that wasn’t “stolen” 😆 I’ll wait.