Notices by 獣耳会社ｗａｎ (wan@poa.st), page 10

@D-Droid @1nter4ri @BigDuck @WashedOutGundamPilot One of the white feather’s originators was the poetess Jessie Pope, best known for her pro-WWI verse. She and her followers were so well-recognized for prodding men to the front that the final stanza of Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est was originally addressed to her:

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

There were some other replies from women who found the white feathers abhorrent, too, like Helen Hamilton (who made up in anger what she lacked in poetic skill):

But still the day may come
For you to prove yourself
As sacrificial as upbraiding.
So far they are not taking us
But if the war goes on much longer
They might,
Nay more,
They must,
When the last man has gone.
And if and when that dark day dawns,
You’ll join up first, of course,
Without waiting to be fetched.
But in the meantime,
Do hold your tongue!
You shame us women.
Can’t you see it isn’t decent,
To flout and goad men into doing,
What is not asked of you?

“The thing that surprises us, in the West … is that the Chinese had so much, and changed so little.

Two thousand years ago, they used to spin magnetic spoons on picture of the Earth and the sky, and depending which way the spoon pointed when it stopped, they made a political prediction.

When we got hold of that in the form of a compass needle, we used it to conquer the world … aided in our voyages by a Chinese rudder.”

“When your children play Pokémon they are actually being tricked into inviting Japanese demons to dwell in them” and “Halloween guising is actually a pagan ritual you’re being tricked into conducting” comes from the same place as “that flag being trimmed in gold means this is actually an admiralty court”.

They spring from a spirituo-legal paradigm in which the world, seen and unseen, runs on ritual words and motions. The words and motions are themselves power by virtue of being calls to some nebulous higher operating system, whether it be Word or Common Law, so saying and doing the right magic things at the right time will save you but being tricked into saying and doing the wrong magic things at the wrong time will damn you.

@AWIVR The full details manage to be even worse. A brief taster from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident

Although there were sufficient lifeboats for the entire ship’s complement, including the Italian prisoners, heavy listing prevented half from being launched until the vessel had settled. The prisoners were abandoned in the locked cargo holds as the ship sank, but most managed to escape by breaking down hatches or climbing up ventilation shafts. Several were shot when a group of prisoners rushed a lifeboat, and a large number were bayoneted to death to prevent their boarding of one of the few lifeboats available.

On 16 September at 11:25 a.m., U-156 was spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber flying from a secret airbase on Ascension. The submarine was travelling with a Red Cross flag draped across her gun deck. Hartenstein signalled to the pilot in both Morse code and English requesting assistance. A British officer also messaged the aircraft: “RAF officer speaking from German submarine, Laconia survivors on board, soldiers, civilians, women, children.”

Harden flew back to the scene of the rescue effort and, at 12:32 p.m., attacked with bombs and depth charges. One landed among the lifeboats in tow behind U-156, killing dozens of survivors

The order given by Richardson and the resulting attack by Harden have been called prima facie Allied war crimes. Under the conventions of war at sea, ships—including submarines—engaged in rescue operations are held to be immune from attack.

The Laconia incident had far-reaching consequences. Up until that point, it was common for U-boats to assist torpedoed survivors with food, water, simple medical care for the wounded, and a compass bearing to the nearest landmass.

The Americans had also practised unrestricted submarine warfare, under their own equivalent to the Laconia Order, which had been in force since they entered the war. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, the wartime commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet, provided unapologetic written testimony on Dönitz’s behalf at his trial that the US Navy had waged unrestricted submarine warfare in the Pacific from the very first day the United States entered the war.

But it’s OK, since the good guys won in the end.

Aspire.

@wgiwf @ChristiJunior @Giganova8 @bronze @Meemoo @Groomschild :senko_tail: MIKON! :senko_tail: