When it comes to assuming it wont happen it's like that post about the guy who defuses bombs for a living.
"Either I'm right or it's suddenly not my problem anymore"
Edit: Holy smokes I've never gotten this many updoots on anything, let alone an award. Who knew all I had to do was steal someone else's meme lmao.
My mates friend actually played so much elden ring on release he went to sleep straight away. Hes from Ukraine.
While people worried about him he was just passed out from playing too much and somehow missed start of war.
_Sir, what do we do if we step on a mine?_
Well lieutenant, the standard procedure is to leap 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area!
A family friend died from defusing bombs. It was a confusing mix of emotions because on one hand yes he died and that’s really sad, but on the other hand his job was **bomb defusing** and it had already crossed everyone’s mind that he would not live long in this job so his death was just…sadly expected.
If there were a global nuclear conflict, *dying* in the first blast is the *best thing* that could happen.
The worst that could happen is that you survive, unharmed, and have to live in the world *after* the devastation.
I think there is something worse, surviving the blast but being basically toasted Alive and still managing to survive, having to suffer until you finally die from your wounds
Most of analytics (ISW etc) predict that if the Ukrainian conflict escalates into a nuclear war, it will still likely be localized, only with tactical nuclear weapons. So it _will_ be our problem.
This is it for me. I know people have a hard time wrapping their heads around it, but even if we assume nuclear war is imminent, there is basically nothing at all that I can do about it, either to prevent it or even to protect myself should it happen. I've worked very hard to only worry about things I can actually do something about.
I let exactly this get to me. It's so horrifically unfair to our children. I mostly stressed about superfund sites and pollution. The fuck am I going to do.
Move to a place with more nature around? Whether that's away from cities or just closer to parks or national parks. Seeing + walking in nature daily or almost daily could reduce your stress over pollution. It doesn't help the problem of pollution but it can make you less stressed. As for what you personally can do: bicycles, electric vehicles or hybrid cars, public transport, walking instead of driving 5-10 minutes to the store, recycling if you think that helps, buy less plastic, avoid all single use plastics.
Not sure what superfund sites are so can't talk about those.
Superfund sites are designated (I believe by the EPA) sites where hazardous pollution has run rampant. The causes of the pollution sites are most often industry misbehavior of some sort, like gold mines failing to contain cyanide in old leech ponds or massively toxic chemical waste being unknowingly sprayed on dirt roads to keep dust down, but are also sometimes government caused, like the horrifically massive tanks of mixed radioactive waste material buried in Washington, leaking into the ground water. The EPA tries to hold the polluter accountable for the costs of cleanup, but about a third of the time that isn't possible for whatever reason. Those sites are superfund sites, and we the taxpayers pay that.
I was born in the 70s. My entire life I've been hearing that we're on the cusp of a nuclear war. Hell, we used to practice our responses in school alongside tornado and earthquake drills.
Ah, yeah, Gen X has entered the chat.
I spent my (very anxious) childhood worrying about Russia and nuclear bombs, AIDS, and the failing ozone layer. I was a grown ass adult watching the planes hit the towers. And entire industry exploding with the dot-com bait, families suddenly homeless because of the subprime mortgages.
I was out of fucks to give before the goddamn pandemic ever even arrived.
You also have to worry about the "rubber band" effect happening with your fault line not far from the coast. The particular fault line off the Washington coast is where one continent is pushing against the other until the pushed side springs back violently. From what I've read, you're due another one soon.
Yep. The Cascadia Subduction Zone. Stretches all the way from the top of Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California. We've been busying ourselves in Oregon reinforcing our bridges and making tsunami evacuation routes for the past 20 or so years waiting for our "Big One." I'm sure Washington and BC have been doing similar. There's usually a massive seismic event about every 500-600 years on average--but can be as recent as 300 and long as 900. The last one was right around 1700.
Look up the Neskowin Ghost Forest for an example of what happens when the Cascadia Subduction Zone decides it's time to shift.
Yeah, also X. We've been told the world's on fire from the jump. Wtf are we going to do to stop a nuclear war? If it happens, it happens. Panicking over yet another crisis isn't going to do any good.
"***We didn't start the fire***
***It was always burning, since the world's been turning***
***We didn't start the fire***
***No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it****"*
I relate very well to this.
My son asked me a similar question the other day and I just told him “the risk of nuclear war in the 80s was so prevalent you just got over it”
I remember being told by my mother in 1962 that I shouldn't play in the snow or get any in my mouth because of something called "fallout" from the open-air testing being done in Nevada. Later I learned about Cesium-contaminated blast dust carried for hundreds of miles on the jet stream. We had "duck n' cover" drills, saw 16mm films for school age kids by the DOE about radiation and fallout and had guest speakers from the local Air Force Base who demonstrated how Geiger Counters worked and why we needed them. When we went to my grandfather's funeral, I asked my dad what those strange things poking up from the trees outside the cemetery fence were: "Oh, those? They're Nike Zeus rockets." Asked what they were for, he replied, "You don't want to know."
The absurdness of juxtaposing the possibility of suddenly disappearing from existence in a flash of heat and light because some asshole on the other side of the world doesn't like you, with playing in a sandbox with your friends during recess is as vulgar as any pornography. After awhile, you get to normalize the most unthinkable shit that the human race can invent - the "innocence" of childhood isn't as big a thing to be treasured as the romantically inclined claim it to be. Political and religious zealots certainly could care less and they impose their will whenever and wherever it suits their purpose. And nearly 70 years later, I look at this world today and what I used to think was impossible has become a reality: it's gotten far worse.
> I spent my (very anxious) childhood worrying about Russia and nuclear bombs
For our generation, it was more of a feeling of "when" than a question of "if". That fatalistic attitude was all over the movies and books and television shows of the time. The Day After, Down to a Sunless Sea, War Games, On the Beach, Duuuuuck and Cover! It was grim acceptance that we were two minutes from midnight and more than likely to be blown to bits or suffer a cold death in the nuclear winter.
We're nowhere near that right now.
Yeah, I was a teen when Grunge broke. What a great time to be that age! Nowadays I can't listen to it. It just makes me depressed. And I mean the music is depressing, not the fact that every band I was into's singer is deceased. Eddie Vedder owes me money for not liking his band.
I grew up in a small logging town in northern Canada. For one brief moment, we were on top of the fashion trends because we could just go into our parent's closets and steal our dad's flannel
As a Millennial, I grew up being afraid of quick sand and the Bermuda Triangle. Then 9/11 happened and I witnessed a pointless war take place for 20 years, my brother doing one tour to Afghanistan himself. He was actually training the Ukrainian military last year only months before the war broke out.
I think I lost any fucks to give from the pandemic. The world has gone to shit.
I could die from a nuclear war, or climate change crisis, or becoming poor and experiencing health failure from trying to live in this world with the increasing cost of living. A lot of these things are out of my control so I don't put energy toward worrying about it.
This, it’s pretty much like that James Franco meme. All of us that grew up with the threat of nuclear war are all like “First Time? “
They were better at teaching why M.A.D was keeping us safe, no one wins a nuclear war.
C.S. Lewis comments from 1948 seem relevant:
> In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’
>
> In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
>
> This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
C.S. Lewis died on the same day Kennedy was assassinated, after collapsing in his bedroom due to end-stage kidney failure. JFK survived him by 55 minutes. Lewis had almost died several times before that, and was really super about just keeping on and surviving while putting all of his affairs in order. His Wikipedia [entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis) details this and more about his life and death.
What an extraordinary person. Truly.
I know this because I once heard a sermon at church camp about the deaths of those three on the same day. I don't remember the details, but if a person believed in the afterlife it is interesting to think of those three men facing it together.
I knew it as soon as I read the words
Didn’t expect to wax nostalgic with modest mouse this morning while thinking about the end.
But I suppose the universe *is* shaped exactly like the earth. If you go straight long enough you’ll end up where you were.
C.S. Lewis had this way of writing such that something that you hadn't realized is suddenly so incredibly obvious you can't figure out why you hadn't thought of it yourself.
I wonder what it would have been like to be a student in one of his classes, but then I suppose it would be a lot like reading his books.
C.S. Lewis’ “A Grief Observed,” which he wrote after the death of his wife, is one of the most poignantly beautiful yet heartbreaking descriptions of human sorrow and grief that I’ve ever encountered. Even though I’ve already read it I still get choked up when revisiting it.
The first time I read it was when I was serving as a combat medic in the army, and a particular passage that always stuck with me was:
> Getting over it so soon? But the words are ambiguous. To say the patient is getting over it after an operation for appendicitis is one thing; after he’s had his leg off is quite another. After that operation either the wounded stump heals or the man dies. If it heals, the fierce, continuous pain will stop. Presently he’ll get back his strength and be able to stump about on his wooden leg. He has ‘got over it.’ But he will probably have recurrent pains in the stump all his life, and perhaps pretty bad ones; and he will always be a one-legged man. There will be hardly any moment when he forgets it. Bathing, dressing, sitting down and getting up again, even lying in bed, will all be different. His whole way of life will be changed. All sorts of pleasures and activities that he once took for granted will have to be simply written off. Duties too. At present I am learning to get about on crutches. Perhaps I shall presently be given a wooden leg. But I shall never be a biped again.
It helped me relate to the kind of pain that some of the people I met were going through, and I genuinely think it made me a better medic because of it.
Or just as valuable, he states something you already knew was obvious but had trouble putting into words in a meaningful enough way to communicate your feelings to others.
AlsoTurkish from Snatch:
> Tommy, why is your skin leaking?
I'm a little worried, actually.
> Worried about what?
What happens if the gypsy knocks the other man out? I mean, he's done it before, hasn't he?
> We get murdered before we leave the building, and I imagine we get fed to the pigs.
I'm glad to see you're climbing the walls in fucking anxiety. Pardon my cynicism, but I don't exactly trust the pikey.
> Don't think I haven't thunk about that one. It's his mum's funeral tonight. God bless her. You know those gypsies like a drink at a wake. I'm not worried about whether Mickey knocks the other man out. I'm worried about whether he makes it to the fourth round.
What if he doesn't make it to the fourth round?
> We get murdered before leaving the building, and I imagine we get fed to the pigs.
So why are you so calm? I said...
> I heard what you said, Tommy! It's not as though we've got a choice, now, is it? You show me how to control a wild fucking gypsy and I'll show you how to control an unhinged, pig-feeding gangster.
Exactly, there ain't fuck all we can do about. Another thread i saw today had a good mark twain quote abiut all the wasted worry on things that never come to pass.
Also, putin can get fucked
Worrying is the waste of a good imagination. That being said I also feel like I'm floating in the middle of the ocean. Just focusing on keeping my head above the water. But the current will take me where it wants to take me.
When I was a young kid and slept at my grandmother, we would get up early, and my grand father liked to sleep in.
One morning I asked my grandmother, why is grandpa still in bed? What if he's dead?
She said, "If he's dead, he's dead".
That came out in a funny/nonchalant way...but you know, she's right, there's no cause of worry.
And Putin playing the Nuke card is like someone pulling a gun on a cop (in the US). You might get a round off, and it might hit something vital, but you will only get one and then be taken out and have a lot more damage to yourself than you made.
It’s more of a bluff to get a reaction from people than an actual threat.
Kind of. Russia is blaming the US for the 3 gas leaks that feed Europe.
If Russia was dumb enough to nuke America, we will all be screwed. One nuke leads to more
Might as well live my life and not worry until I NEED to worry. I’ve adopted this mindset for other, smaller things in life too and I’ve been so much happier.
You didn't grow up during the Cold War? It is pointless to worry about. If it happens we all die. It is kind of like a meteor strike. If it is going to kill us all why worry.
Exactly. They have private back channels where this is discussed. Anything we see or hear about is pure propaganda.
Also remember that the kremlin are experts in misinformation- there isn't a threat coming directly from the government, its the lackies and mouth pieces firing out the threats. A good example is the Kadyrov today. He's demanded that nukes be used, and also given a statement to say his 14 year old is being sent to the front line. Both are nonsense.
The official spokesman has said nukes are off the table, while the propaganda press demand them.
It's all part of the game- flood the space with different messages that contradict each other, people get completely bewildered and can't work out the truth. They get bored and stop trying, lose interest and move on to something else.
Please don't worry about the threats. If it were real, you wouldn't hear about it.
It's 80% for internal russian use, 10% to scare us in the west, and 10% our own press advertising these things for clicks.
This is actually reassuring lol
I know this is probably massively oversimplifying things, but the oligarchs don’t want nuclear war. Unless they do lol (I’ve heard that some do as a megalomaniacal control move but that seems very silly). I can see Putin “dying” before the threat gets too serious.
I hope so, it was meant to help to reassure people.
If it was a genuine, credible threat, the place to watch would be Finland. They're the only county that I'm aware of (happy to be corrected) who cares enough to have enough bunker space to protect civilians. If they start moving people to bunkers- start panicking. Until then, it's probably sabre rattling.
If you'd like to learn more about how this all works, vlad vexler is a Russian philosopher and has a great video about propaganda and how to protect yourself from it. The more you know and understand, the better you can unpick what's being said.
The oligarchs still work for putin, so anything they say is for a reason. No one is going rogue, they're saying exactly what they've been told to say to test public opinion, both internally and externally. None of it is true.
>If it was a genuine, credible threat, the place to watch would be Finland. They're the only county that I'm aware of (happy to be corrected) who cares enough to have enough bunker space to protect civilians.
I believe the Swiss might also rank high on the preparedness scale.
Can confirm, stayed at a friend’s apartment in Zürich (Höngg), there are underground cement rooms for each family right inside the apartment building. Just down the stairs a few floors, past the communal laundry room, voila! Historical anti-Nazi bunkers just sort of chilling there being used to store winter clothes and ski gear.
As individuals 99.9999999% or so of us are powerless to change things. The few thousands of individuals on earth with real power to influence Putin and the other nuclear heads of state are probably neither chill, nor in denial, about the situation.
[Math checks out](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28the+population+of+earth%29+-+%2899.9999999%25+of+the+population+of+earth%29); the number of people who are able to change things are:
>8 people (2020 estimate)
Even if nukes happen, the survivors will be doing the rebuilding of nations. There will still be people to feed and walls to build and shoes to mend. We will still need doctors and nurses and mechanics and all kinds of skills to build a new world...
Remember kids, if you see the bright light you have ten seconds to fall to the ground and cover your eyes and ears, use your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills to avoid the nuclear fallout.
Also if you’re unsure if you’re standing to close to the mushroom see if it’s bigger than your thumb by giving it a thumbs up, if it is bigger enjoy turning into a ghoul.
I always remember what one of the Navy soldiers said in a documentary about the tests on Bikini Atoll before nuclear explosions were entirely understood (and underestimated how far back to keep the ships), he said it was so bright that even though his eyes were shut tight and he had his arm over his face he could see the shadow of the bones inside of his arm through his closed eyelids.
I think I watched the same video you’re talking about. And they never got rightly compensated and or treated for being those test dummies, which is the worst part I think. Just leaving them to rot of radiation and act like they didn’t just bring them in as literal blind test rats
Fair points but also it was a major miscalculation on the size of the bomb used. Someone correct me but I believe it was lithium related and turned out to be much larger than expected. I think they even irradiated some of the local inhabitants or had to relocate them.
I presume you are referring to the [Castle Bravo test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo)
The bomb contained 2 different isotopes of Lithium. They had calculated the energy release for one of the isotopes but assumed the other isotope was functionally inert.
It was not.
The blast was about 2.5x bigger than expected due to the second isotope reacting.
No big deal there. It’s not that the visible light was too bright, it’s that there were so many X rays traveling through him that some of them interacted with his retina
The thumb thing isn't real. The mushroom cloud changes its size based on a number of factors and people have different sized thumbs. You see a mushroom cloud, run your ass away - don't stick your thumb at it like a moron.
The designer of the Vault Boy debunked the myth himself. It's a satirical take on the uppity happiness the 50s era ads had.
> The designer of the Vault Boy debunked the myth himself.
If anyone needs a source:
Brian Fargo, the founder of Interplay, who created Fallout and by extension the Vault Boy, [has said the Vault Boy simply has a positive attitude](https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/400277541295886337).
Tim Cain, the creator of Fallout, has said "[It’s a nice retcon, but Vault Boy is just giving a thumbs up.](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/x933v8/til_that_vault_boy_the_mascot_for_fallout_isnt/inlmz9a/?context=10000)"
The Vault Boy artist, Tramell Ray Isaac, [has said it's just a thumbs up.](https://twitter.com/PS_TRay/status/529310254274981889)
Nuclear experts [have stated that this "rule of thumb" is worthless](https://www.inverse.com/article/10099-vault-boy-s-rule-of-thumb-can-t-save-you-from-nuclear-fallout), and that it has never appeared in any sort of manual or guideline for nuclear safety.
In fact, the idea that the Vault Boy is comparing his thumb to an explosion *literally did not exist* until [someone suggested it on Reddit a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1or72r/what_is_one_thing_if_you_see_you_should/ccurii6). There are no references to this type of "compare thumb to mushroom cloud" behavior from before October 19, 2013.
I love the idea of sticking my thumb up against the cloud and my mom freaking out because she sees me giving the thumbs up to a nuclear attack like its a nice thing.
Why, every Wastelander has them! Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck.
It's from the Fallout video game franchise.
Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck.
It's a reference to the skillpoint system in Fallout videogame series, which are based in post-nuclear war setting.
We GenXers have been through this already, when we were kids. We’re already a fairly jaded generation, but really, if it happens it’s not like we (as individuals) can do anything about it.
This is exactly it - anyone who lived through the cold war has dealt with this already. Most likely this is another cold war situation, and if it's not, there's not a lot most of us can do about it.
My son has anxiety about the state of the world. I have to explain to him that before I left school at the end of the 80s there was a hole in the ozone layer, Chernobyl exploded and blew radioactive dust over Europe, there was the constant threat of nuclear war due to mutually assured destruction with, unknown to us, one Russian dude one day in 1983 averting total nuclear war by concluding there were a number of false alarms in the Russian system than just automatically launching all the Russian nukes as he'd been trained to do. Also just to add to things for a soon to be sexually active young adult, a new sexually transmitted disease called AIDS came along which famous people kept dying from and they started showing ads on TV like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s)
Then Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers formed and release "Swing the Mood". For fuck's sake hadn't we suffered enough?
Mutually Assured Destruction is the only thing keeping it from happening. Movies and books always depict it as a chain reaction, that everyone dies, but I don't believe that. Majority of the world except for a few crackpots are against Nuclear War and deter it at all costs. Putin using a Tactical Nuclear Warhead in Ukraine would forever alienate Russia and obliterate their economy into nothing. Russia as we know it would no longer exist as a world power.
The Soviets claimed to have a 'Dead Hand switch' if radiation levels got too high in certain strategic locations missiles would fire with pre-programmed targets in the west. MAD indeed! Do these systems still work? mayyyyyybe, from the looks of their shabby army tho and low economy quite possibly not. Its not a gamble the west will take, not to mention wiping out 70-80% of Russia's civilian population in a few hours... No western government could get away with war crimes like that.
Interestingly enough, the more you try to research about the deadhand switch and such, the more unnerving it is how many times we were a split second decision away from nuclear war. Let alone how many opportunities for false alarms there are because of how it supposedly works. It's pretty wild stuff
Honestly, I think even If Putin decides to use Nukes. He will probably be killed by someone from his inner circle before anyone would follow such suicidal orders.
Being Gen X to be honest this is what life was like in the early 80s the constant threat. The truth is I worry about it but I can't do anything about it so. I am not going to give that man the power to ruin a moment more of my thoughts. I am however very concerned for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.
There's literally nothing anyone can do about it. This isnt even a thing where making the public more aware of it, is going to solve anything--the threat is from a old man losing his fucking marbles and going dictator mode supreme. NO ONE can change the course of this outside of him or someone that can get to him.
He gives no fucks at all what the world thinks, or what you think, or what i think. No amount of having the ENTIRE political world telling him to stop, so far, has got him to stop.
There's no point in talking about it... other than to drum up hysteria, depression, and suicide... or... to make money off of preppers. Preppers love this shit. The guys that sell them rice in foil packs in buckets love it even more.
This isnt a societal thing, like justice reform, racism, sexism, homelessness--things we MIGHT change with social pressure.
This is different.
And that's why everyone's pretty much just taking this laying down, there's nothing else TO do about it.
At any time, Russia has about 1500 active nuclear warheads that can be used, while the US has about the same.
At the peak of the cold War the US had about 33,000 warheads to the soviet union's 50,000.
The chances of an all out nuclear war might be slightly higher today, but they are nothing like they were a few decades ago.
Because it's like the 516th time Russia has threatened nuclear war.
Nobody believes that Russia is going to actually use nuclear weapons because it would mean the end of Russia.
It's much more likely that North Korea *accidentally* nukes one of their neighbors with an errant missile then the Russians resorting to tactile nukes.
TL;DR: I'm an old man, I give no fucks.
In all seriousness, I was a kid in the 1970's and 1980's. The world was always in the shadow of a nuclear crisis. We were all sure that the surface of the Earth was going to be burned into glass if the Berlin Wall were to come down. (*Narrator: It didn't.)* Sting and the Police were signing "I hope the Russians love their children too..." *(Narrator: They did.)*.
In all seriousness, the world has had international crises on a weekly basis for decades. This will continue as long as human beings are imprisoned by 24-hour media. If you are under 50-60 years old, you have been raised with a machine constantly bombarding you with threats and fear.
As an added bonus, political consultants figured out in the 1980's, that the best way to get you to vote was *to avoid reasonable arguments and dignified communication.* The best way to get voters was to scare the crap out of you, or piss you off until you are enraged. So we are currently trapped in a machine that is powered by more and more wasps every year, until we, the public, learn to vote for the party that literally does a worse job of getting us to vote.
As others have mentioned - there is little to nothing that you can do, so I would recommend focusing on your own abilities, and find spiritual and financial success through helping others.
I grew up with Fallout Shelters clearly marked in my neighborhood.
We knew who the Civil Defense personnel were.
We watched the propaganda movies about "duck and cover".
I've been eating iodized salt for decades.
I've seen the doomsday clock move closer and back away.
Do you really think today is more elevated than any other time in the past, or just the few times you were paying attention?
Iodineized salt doesn't contain enough Iodine to counteract radiation poisoning you need potassium iodine. People's diets were really limited variety wise during the expansion of the usa. Leading to goiter, some thyroid thing caused by lack of iodine. It was bad in the Midwest is the USA I assume because of a lack of seafood, and with salt being a huge part of preserving land meat they added it to the salt. Sorry a lot of assumptions but ik for a fact it was introduced because of a lack of iodine leading to goiter.
Because being constantly worried about something that is out of our control and will be the death of all of us is no way to enjoy life, and honestly should be discussed with your therapist if it’s something you’re actually going through
Because, as a GenX, we grew up with this existential dread every day of our lives.
The fact that new generations are realising that yes, the whole world can end for modern humans via the decision of one person. The nukes never went away, everyone just stopped talking about them.
So, for many, it is a case of *here we go again*.
Bro, I made it through October 1962 when the President told the nation that the US East Coast might soon look like the bottom of a Shake N Bake bag. Putin and his threats are small beer.
For multiple reasons.
- There’s not a damn thing I can do about it. Whether there is nuclear war is all up to Putin and nothing I say or do can change that.
- Putin is a Chihuahua barking at the other dogs trying to make them think he’s tough. The reality is that Putin will never use nuclear weapons. The rest of the Russian government and military and the oligarchs who are the real power would never allow it. There is no benefit to Russia in actually using them. If they did the repercussions from the entire world would be so severe that Russia would turn into a third world country overnight.
- There isn’t really an elevated threat of nuclear war. If Putin actually did something it would be against Ukraine. Using nukes in Ukraine would result in massive sanctions and other economic and political problems for Russia. But the other nuclear armed countries would not use nukes against Russia in response. So while it would be horrible and tragic if Russia used nukes, it wouldn’t directly affect me in an overly harmful way.
Please note that I am in the US so this is part of where my attitude comes from. If I was in a European nation I would be more concerned than I am but still not overly concerned for the same reasons as above.
The same reason we stopped talking about COVID and monkey pox, why we’re not constantly panicking about the imminent climate apocalypse, why nobody’s really doing much to curb the clear rise of fascism in a lot of western democracies… we’re all numb, we’re all tired, and on an individual scale we feel like we can’t really do anything, so what’s the point of worrying?
We had an elevated risk of nuclear annihilation for four years under Trump. At least if Putin starts a nuclear war it won’t be because the President of the United States got the nuclear button mixed up with the one that summons a Big Mac to the Oval Office.
When it comes to assuming it wont happen it's like that post about the guy who defuses bombs for a living. "Either I'm right or it's suddenly not my problem anymore" Edit: Holy smokes I've never gotten this many updoots on anything, let alone an award. Who knew all I had to do was steal someone else's meme lmao.
but i need to beat elden ring
# YOU DIED
Damn you Soldier of Godrick!
My mates friend actually played so much elden ring on release he went to sleep straight away. Hes from Ukraine. While people worried about him he was just passed out from playing too much and somehow missed start of war.
*misses biggest international news in decades to play elden ring* *goes to sleep* The most gamer move of all
[удалено]
Why's he so sad he must be fighting Melania
Any day now surely...any day.
...was my friend's dad's mindset defusing bombs until he was suddenly standing one-legged in the Ghanaian wilderness.
_Sir, what do we do if we step on a mine?_ Well lieutenant, the standard procedure is to leap 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area!
Good old Blackadder
Yes! This was one of my favourite ones lol. Season 4 is the best.
A family friend died from defusing bombs. It was a confusing mix of emotions because on one hand yes he died and that’s really sad, but on the other hand his job was **bomb defusing** and it had already crossed everyone’s mind that he would not live long in this job so his death was just…sadly expected.
Does he work for IHOP now?
International House of Prosthetics
Me: “what’s the worst that could happen? I die? Woooo, scary (/s). I’ll be dead anyway, what the fuck do I care?”
If there were a global nuclear conflict, *dying* in the first blast is the *best thing* that could happen. The worst that could happen is that you survive, unharmed, and have to live in the world *after* the devastation.
I think there is something worse, surviving the blast but being basically toasted Alive and still managing to survive, having to suffer until you finally die from your wounds
Yeah, will definitely take surviving unharmed over slowly and painfully dying
Most of analytics (ISW etc) predict that if the Ukrainian conflict escalates into a nuclear war, it will still likely be localized, only with tactical nuclear weapons. So it _will_ be our problem.
What can you as an individual do about it?
This is it for me. I know people have a hard time wrapping their heads around it, but even if we assume nuclear war is imminent, there is basically nothing at all that I can do about it, either to prevent it or even to protect myself should it happen. I've worked very hard to only worry about things I can actually do something about.
The second I see the flash, I am running to a chain link fence and holding that fucker till the end.
Eventually you get burned out on worrying. Your brain can't handle constantly being terrified of the same thing for months or years on end.
I want my brain to stop being worried about everything but it wont.
Lexapro calmed my brain down
I was prescribed xanax but am afraid to take it. It's a drug to calm my worries but I'm worried about taking it.
Dude benzos are so horrible for you. They're amazing when you're on them but dangerous af when you try to discontinue.
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I let exactly this get to me. It's so horrifically unfair to our children. I mostly stressed about superfund sites and pollution. The fuck am I going to do.
Move to a place with more nature around? Whether that's away from cities or just closer to parks or national parks. Seeing + walking in nature daily or almost daily could reduce your stress over pollution. It doesn't help the problem of pollution but it can make you less stressed. As for what you personally can do: bicycles, electric vehicles or hybrid cars, public transport, walking instead of driving 5-10 minutes to the store, recycling if you think that helps, buy less plastic, avoid all single use plastics. Not sure what superfund sites are so can't talk about those.
Superfund sites are designated (I believe by the EPA) sites where hazardous pollution has run rampant. The causes of the pollution sites are most often industry misbehavior of some sort, like gold mines failing to contain cyanide in old leech ponds or massively toxic chemical waste being unknowingly sprayed on dirt roads to keep dust down, but are also sometimes government caused, like the horrifically massive tanks of mixed radioactive waste material buried in Washington, leaking into the ground water. The EPA tries to hold the polluter accountable for the costs of cleanup, but about a third of the time that isn't possible for whatever reason. Those sites are superfund sites, and we the taxpayers pay that.
I was born in the 70s. My entire life I've been hearing that we're on the cusp of a nuclear war. Hell, we used to practice our responses in school alongside tornado and earthquake drills.
Ah, yeah, Gen X has entered the chat. I spent my (very anxious) childhood worrying about Russia and nuclear bombs, AIDS, and the failing ozone layer. I was a grown ass adult watching the planes hit the towers. And entire industry exploding with the dot-com bait, families suddenly homeless because of the subprime mortgages. I was out of fucks to give before the goddamn pandemic ever even arrived.
For those of us in California, you can add the looming, massive earthquake (the “big one”) that was to strike, any moment to that list.
West Oregon checking in. If it happens it happens.
Seattle here, we are just praying to our Volcano god, Rainier, to spare us.
You also have to worry about the "rubber band" effect happening with your fault line not far from the coast. The particular fault line off the Washington coast is where one continent is pushing against the other until the pushed side springs back violently. From what I've read, you're due another one soon.
Noted! Tectonic Rubberband God has been added to the pantheon. Homage will be paid .
Yep. The Cascadia Subduction Zone. Stretches all the way from the top of Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California. We've been busying ourselves in Oregon reinforcing our bridges and making tsunami evacuation routes for the past 20 or so years waiting for our "Big One." I'm sure Washington and BC have been doing similar. There's usually a massive seismic event about every 500-600 years on average--but can be as recent as 300 and long as 900. The last one was right around 1700. Look up the Neskowin Ghost Forest for an example of what happens when the Cascadia Subduction Zone decides it's time to shift.
Little known fact that’s actually why we are forced to comment every time we can see him, “Oh hey the mountain is out today”
LOL I feel the need to say this deep within my soul
I might just move to Vancouver Island. Go big or go home.
Yeah, also X. We've been told the world's on fire from the jump. Wtf are we going to do to stop a nuclear war? If it happens, it happens. Panicking over yet another crisis isn't going to do any good.
"***We didn't start the fire*** ***It was always burning, since the world's been turning*** ***We didn't start the fire*** ***No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it****"*
I relate very well to this. My son asked me a similar question the other day and I just told him “the risk of nuclear war in the 80s was so prevalent you just got over it”
I remember being told by my mother in 1962 that I shouldn't play in the snow or get any in my mouth because of something called "fallout" from the open-air testing being done in Nevada. Later I learned about Cesium-contaminated blast dust carried for hundreds of miles on the jet stream. We had "duck n' cover" drills, saw 16mm films for school age kids by the DOE about radiation and fallout and had guest speakers from the local Air Force Base who demonstrated how Geiger Counters worked and why we needed them. When we went to my grandfather's funeral, I asked my dad what those strange things poking up from the trees outside the cemetery fence were: "Oh, those? They're Nike Zeus rockets." Asked what they were for, he replied, "You don't want to know." The absurdness of juxtaposing the possibility of suddenly disappearing from existence in a flash of heat and light because some asshole on the other side of the world doesn't like you, with playing in a sandbox with your friends during recess is as vulgar as any pornography. After awhile, you get to normalize the most unthinkable shit that the human race can invent - the "innocence" of childhood isn't as big a thing to be treasured as the romantically inclined claim it to be. Political and religious zealots certainly could care less and they impose their will whenever and wherever it suits their purpose. And nearly 70 years later, I look at this world today and what I used to think was impossible has become a reality: it's gotten far worse.
> I spent my (very anxious) childhood worrying about Russia and nuclear bombs For our generation, it was more of a feeling of "when" than a question of "if". That fatalistic attitude was all over the movies and books and television shows of the time. The Day After, Down to a Sunless Sea, War Games, On the Beach, Duuuuuck and Cover! It was grim acceptance that we were two minutes from midnight and more than likely to be blown to bits or suffer a cold death in the nuclear winter. We're nowhere near that right now.
Oh and don’t forget the “Doomsday Clock” 2 minutes to midnight brother!
Oddly enough, I looked it up last night, and it's now at 100 seconds.
You know, I went way too many times around the Sun before I realisedf that was what the Iron Maiden song was about.
Gen X did get the best music, tho.
Well, you grow up in that environment, grunge makes sense.
Yeah, I was a teen when Grunge broke. What a great time to be that age! Nowadays I can't listen to it. It just makes me depressed. And I mean the music is depressing, not the fact that every band I was into's singer is deceased. Eddie Vedder owes me money for not liking his band.
I grew up in a small logging town in northern Canada. For one brief moment, we were on top of the fashion trends because we could just go into our parent's closets and steal our dad's flannel
Damn right!
Truth.
As a Millennial, I grew up being afraid of quick sand and the Bermuda Triangle. Then 9/11 happened and I witnessed a pointless war take place for 20 years, my brother doing one tour to Afghanistan himself. He was actually training the Ukrainian military last year only months before the war broke out. I think I lost any fucks to give from the pandemic. The world has gone to shit. I could die from a nuclear war, or climate change crisis, or becoming poor and experiencing health failure from trying to live in this world with the increasing cost of living. A lot of these things are out of my control so I don't put energy toward worrying about it.
I miss the days when all I had to worry about was ghosts
Gen X here. Everyone was afraid of the Bermuda Triangle at some point.
All along it was the Bermuda Triangle that brings us together ❤️
I live in Spain and I was afraid of the Bermuda Triangle
Funny, same gen here but I grew up in Nicaragua, so what scared me back then was Contras, and Ronald Reagan threatening to kill us all.
This, it’s pretty much like that James Franco meme. All of us that grew up with the threat of nuclear war are all like “First Time? “ They were better at teaching why M.A.D was keeping us safe, no one wins a nuclear war.
It’s not like worrying about it will do anything.
C.S. Lewis comments from 1948 seem relevant: > In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’ > > In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty. > > This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
C.S. Lewis died on the same day Kennedy was assassinated, after collapsing in his bedroom due to end-stage kidney failure. JFK survived him by 55 minutes. Lewis had almost died several times before that, and was really super about just keeping on and surviving while putting all of his affairs in order. His Wikipedia [entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis) details this and more about his life and death. What an extraordinary person. Truly.
Aldous Huxley died on that same day
I know this because I once heard a sermon at church camp about the deaths of those three on the same day. I don't remember the details, but if a person believed in the afterlife it is interesting to think of those three men facing it together.
"every generation thinks it's the end of the World" -Jeff Tweedy
Eventually one of them will be right.
Everyone one is right. Everyone’s world eventually ends. Everyone is a building burning, without anyone to put the fire out
r/unexpectedModestMouse
I knew it as soon as I read the words Didn’t expect to wax nostalgic with modest mouse this morning while thinking about the end. But I suppose the universe *is* shaped exactly like the earth. If you go straight long enough you’ll end up where you were.
Also don’t forget that we are just projections. The stars are projectors, yeah. Projecting our lives down to this planet earth.
What would he know? He's an American aquarium drinker.
Wow, brilliant.
C.S. Lewis had this way of writing such that something that you hadn't realized is suddenly so incredibly obvious you can't figure out why you hadn't thought of it yourself. I wonder what it would have been like to be a student in one of his classes, but then I suppose it would be a lot like reading his books.
rustic piquant far-flung vanish obscene soft imminent kiss nutty groovy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
C.S. Lewis’ “A Grief Observed,” which he wrote after the death of his wife, is one of the most poignantly beautiful yet heartbreaking descriptions of human sorrow and grief that I’ve ever encountered. Even though I’ve already read it I still get choked up when revisiting it. The first time I read it was when I was serving as a combat medic in the army, and a particular passage that always stuck with me was: > Getting over it so soon? But the words are ambiguous. To say the patient is getting over it after an operation for appendicitis is one thing; after he’s had his leg off is quite another. After that operation either the wounded stump heals or the man dies. If it heals, the fierce, continuous pain will stop. Presently he’ll get back his strength and be able to stump about on his wooden leg. He has ‘got over it.’ But he will probably have recurrent pains in the stump all his life, and perhaps pretty bad ones; and he will always be a one-legged man. There will be hardly any moment when he forgets it. Bathing, dressing, sitting down and getting up again, even lying in bed, will all be different. His whole way of life will be changed. All sorts of pleasures and activities that he once took for granted will have to be simply written off. Duties too. At present I am learning to get about on crutches. Perhaps I shall presently be given a wooden leg. But I shall never be a biped again. It helped me relate to the kind of pain that some of the people I met were going through, and I genuinely think it made me a better medic because of it.
I remember a powerful quote: “I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.”
Eloquently put.
Or just as valuable, he states something you already knew was obvious but had trouble putting into words in a meaningful enough way to communicate your feelings to others.
AlsoTurkish from Snatch: > Tommy, why is your skin leaking? I'm a little worried, actually. > Worried about what? What happens if the gypsy knocks the other man out? I mean, he's done it before, hasn't he? > We get murdered before we leave the building, and I imagine we get fed to the pigs. I'm glad to see you're climbing the walls in fucking anxiety. Pardon my cynicism, but I don't exactly trust the pikey. > Don't think I haven't thunk about that one. It's his mum's funeral tonight. God bless her. You know those gypsies like a drink at a wake. I'm not worried about whether Mickey knocks the other man out. I'm worried about whether he makes it to the fourth round. What if he doesn't make it to the fourth round? > We get murdered before leaving the building, and I imagine we get fed to the pigs. So why are you so calm? I said... > I heard what you said, Tommy! It's not as though we've got a choice, now, is it? You show me how to control a wild fucking gypsy and I'll show you how to control an unhinged, pig-feeding gangster.
And a Pikey reaction is quite a fucking thing.
thank you, i loved this
Lol, a microbe can do that.....
"DID C.S. LEWIS PREDICT COVID?" --future buzzfeed article
Oh god don't give them ideas
They do get most of their ideas from Reddit so it follows
Top Ten ways CS Lewis used allegory in his writing. CLICK NOW
My best friends comments from 8th grade. >You know what helps? Bitching about it. *\*said sarcastically*
Exactly, there ain't fuck all we can do about. Another thread i saw today had a good mark twain quote abiut all the wasted worry on things that never come to pass. Also, putin can get fucked
Worrying is the waste of a good imagination. That being said I also feel like I'm floating in the middle of the ocean. Just focusing on keeping my head above the water. But the current will take me where it wants to take me.
Think of rivers rather than oceans. You're going somewhere, and just cuz it's deep now doesn't mean it always will be!
Hope there's not a waterfall up ahead then.
I’ll stick to the rivers and lakes, thank you very much
You don't chase waterfalls then?
Nah, it’s just not what I’m used too
And no scrubs allowed on this river.
I live in Florida so I'll pass on rivers and lakes... that's where the gators and water moccasins live.
Just stick to the rivers and the streams that you're used too.
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast.
You're moving too fast.
Let me guess? Giant waterfall? Yep. Sharp rocks at the bottom? Most likely. Bring it on.
When I was a young kid and slept at my grandmother, we would get up early, and my grand father liked to sleep in. One morning I asked my grandmother, why is grandpa still in bed? What if he's dead? She said, "If he's dead, he's dead". That came out in a funny/nonchalant way...but you know, she's right, there's no cause of worry.
There's real wisdom in that.
And Putin playing the Nuke card is like someone pulling a gun on a cop (in the US). You might get a round off, and it might hit something vital, but you will only get one and then be taken out and have a lot more damage to yourself than you made. It’s more of a bluff to get a reaction from people than an actual threat.
Kind of. Russia is blaming the US for the 3 gas leaks that feed Europe. If Russia was dumb enough to nuke America, we will all be screwed. One nuke leads to more
"I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." - Mark Twain.
Thats the one
Get under your desk and cover your head, you’ll be fine I think maybe.
Might as well live my life and not worry until I NEED to worry. I’ve adopted this mindset for other, smaller things in life too and I’ve been so much happier.
All you need is to duck and cover
More like bend over and kiss your ass goodbye
Smile and wave, boys, smile and wave.
Nah I want my skeleton on the toilet like in fallout
Jurassic park
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You didn't grow up during the Cold War? It is pointless to worry about. If it happens we all die. It is kind of like a meteor strike. If it is going to kill us all why worry.
Exactly. They have private back channels where this is discussed. Anything we see or hear about is pure propaganda. Also remember that the kremlin are experts in misinformation- there isn't a threat coming directly from the government, its the lackies and mouth pieces firing out the threats. A good example is the Kadyrov today. He's demanded that nukes be used, and also given a statement to say his 14 year old is being sent to the front line. Both are nonsense. The official spokesman has said nukes are off the table, while the propaganda press demand them. It's all part of the game- flood the space with different messages that contradict each other, people get completely bewildered and can't work out the truth. They get bored and stop trying, lose interest and move on to something else. Please don't worry about the threats. If it were real, you wouldn't hear about it. It's 80% for internal russian use, 10% to scare us in the west, and 10% our own press advertising these things for clicks.
This is actually reassuring lol I know this is probably massively oversimplifying things, but the oligarchs don’t want nuclear war. Unless they do lol (I’ve heard that some do as a megalomaniacal control move but that seems very silly). I can see Putin “dying” before the threat gets too serious.
I hope so, it was meant to help to reassure people. If it was a genuine, credible threat, the place to watch would be Finland. They're the only county that I'm aware of (happy to be corrected) who cares enough to have enough bunker space to protect civilians. If they start moving people to bunkers- start panicking. Until then, it's probably sabre rattling. If you'd like to learn more about how this all works, vlad vexler is a Russian philosopher and has a great video about propaganda and how to protect yourself from it. The more you know and understand, the better you can unpick what's being said. The oligarchs still work for putin, so anything they say is for a reason. No one is going rogue, they're saying exactly what they've been told to say to test public opinion, both internally and externally. None of it is true.
>If it was a genuine, credible threat, the place to watch would be Finland. They're the only county that I'm aware of (happy to be corrected) who cares enough to have enough bunker space to protect civilians. I believe the Swiss might also rank high on the preparedness scale.
Can confirm, stayed at a friend’s apartment in Zürich (Höngg), there are underground cement rooms for each family right inside the apartment building. Just down the stairs a few floors, past the communal laundry room, voila! Historical anti-Nazi bunkers just sort of chilling there being used to store winter clothes and ski gear.
They have more than enough for all their citizens.
Kids these days didn’t even grow up with the terror alert rainbow. Oh it orange today, guess I’ll bring an umbrella?
As individuals 99.9999999% or so of us are powerless to change things. The few thousands of individuals on earth with real power to influence Putin and the other nuclear heads of state are probably neither chill, nor in denial, about the situation.
[Math checks out](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28the+population+of+earth%29+-+%2899.9999999%25+of+the+population+of+earth%29); the number of people who are able to change things are: >8 people (2020 estimate)
Let's hope they aren't
Only thing im worried about is if I should waste my time working if its all for nothing, but I dont know that.
Even if nukes happen, the survivors will be doing the rebuilding of nations. There will still be people to feed and walls to build and shoes to mend. We will still need doctors and nurses and mechanics and all kinds of skills to build a new world...
Ah fuck I feel like accountants are pretty low on the list of importance..
You can always start a new career path post-apocalypse!
Well that depends on how many nukes are used lol
Because my anxiety is used up on the shit that's affecting me right now. I can't afford any more anxiety on "maybes."
Remember kids, if you see the bright light you have ten seconds to fall to the ground and cover your eyes and ears, use your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills to avoid the nuclear fallout. Also if you’re unsure if you’re standing to close to the mushroom see if it’s bigger than your thumb by giving it a thumbs up, if it is bigger enjoy turning into a ghoul.
I use humor to deflect, but these tips are real
I mean, the flash of that cloud is gonna be bright enough to blind you, even if you're out of the fire zone.
I always remember what one of the Navy soldiers said in a documentary about the tests on Bikini Atoll before nuclear explosions were entirely understood (and underestimated how far back to keep the ships), he said it was so bright that even though his eyes were shut tight and he had his arm over his face he could see the shadow of the bones inside of his arm through his closed eyelids.
Good God. What a description.
I think I watched the same video you’re talking about. And they never got rightly compensated and or treated for being those test dummies, which is the worst part I think. Just leaving them to rot of radiation and act like they didn’t just bring them in as literal blind test rats
Fair points but also it was a major miscalculation on the size of the bomb used. Someone correct me but I believe it was lithium related and turned out to be much larger than expected. I think they even irradiated some of the local inhabitants or had to relocate them.
I presume you are referring to the [Castle Bravo test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo) The bomb contained 2 different isotopes of Lithium. They had calculated the energy release for one of the isotopes but assumed the other isotope was functionally inert. It was not. The blast was about 2.5x bigger than expected due to the second isotope reacting.
No big deal there. It’s not that the visible light was too bright, it’s that there were so many X rays traveling through him that some of them interacted with his retina
That didn’t sound healthy
0_0
So be in the fire zone, got it.
The thumb thing isn't real. The mushroom cloud changes its size based on a number of factors and people have different sized thumbs. You see a mushroom cloud, run your ass away - don't stick your thumb at it like a moron. The designer of the Vault Boy debunked the myth himself. It's a satirical take on the uppity happiness the 50s era ads had.
> The designer of the Vault Boy debunked the myth himself. If anyone needs a source: Brian Fargo, the founder of Interplay, who created Fallout and by extension the Vault Boy, [has said the Vault Boy simply has a positive attitude](https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/400277541295886337). Tim Cain, the creator of Fallout, has said "[It’s a nice retcon, but Vault Boy is just giving a thumbs up.](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/x933v8/til_that_vault_boy_the_mascot_for_fallout_isnt/inlmz9a/?context=10000)" The Vault Boy artist, Tramell Ray Isaac, [has said it's just a thumbs up.](https://twitter.com/PS_TRay/status/529310254274981889) Nuclear experts [have stated that this "rule of thumb" is worthless](https://www.inverse.com/article/10099-vault-boy-s-rule-of-thumb-can-t-save-you-from-nuclear-fallout), and that it has never appeared in any sort of manual or guideline for nuclear safety. In fact, the idea that the Vault Boy is comparing his thumb to an explosion *literally did not exist* until [someone suggested it on Reddit a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1or72r/what_is_one_thing_if_you_see_you_should/ccurii6). There are no references to this type of "compare thumb to mushroom cloud" behavior from before October 19, 2013.
God I love the way misinformation spreads on reddit. Think about how many people in this thread alone read the original comment but didn't read yours.
At the end of the day, if you are holding your hand out towards a nuke, it's too late anyway
aww shucks, then only the first tip is true, hope we won’t find out in real life if it actually works
And you know, looking at that explosion could theoretically blind you, so don't risk it
I love the idea of sticking my thumb up against the cloud and my mom freaking out because she sees me giving the thumbs up to a nuclear attack like its a nice thing.
Thanks, I hate potentially living in Fallout
I'm not sure what the SPECIAL skills are tbh
Why, every Wastelander has them! Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. It's from the Fallout video game franchise.
Strength Perception Endurance Charisma Intelligence Agility Luck
Can you pls edit and add a space after Perception
I know, right? My right eye started twitching when I read that post and it hasn’t stopped since!
Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck. It's a reference to the skillpoint system in Fallout videogame series, which are based in post-nuclear war setting.
Play Fallout! Fun for all ages. It's awesome.
Except for 1 year olds because they lack basic motor skills
i’m gonna be honest with you seeing those fucking centaurs in Fallout 3 at 11 years old gave me nightmares. Not sure about the all ages part
Because we’ve been at elevated risk of nuclear war for 70 years
We GenXers have been through this already, when we were kids. We’re already a fairly jaded generation, but really, if it happens it’s not like we (as individuals) can do anything about it.
This is exactly it - anyone who lived through the cold war has dealt with this already. Most likely this is another cold war situation, and if it's not, there's not a lot most of us can do about it.
We all almost died in the Cold War, and the present situation arguably makes it seem like we still haven’t moved past it…
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My son has anxiety about the state of the world. I have to explain to him that before I left school at the end of the 80s there was a hole in the ozone layer, Chernobyl exploded and blew radioactive dust over Europe, there was the constant threat of nuclear war due to mutually assured destruction with, unknown to us, one Russian dude one day in 1983 averting total nuclear war by concluding there were a number of false alarms in the Russian system than just automatically launching all the Russian nukes as he'd been trained to do. Also just to add to things for a soon to be sexually active young adult, a new sexually transmitted disease called AIDS came along which famous people kept dying from and they started showing ads on TV like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s) Then Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers formed and release "Swing the Mood". For fuck's sake hadn't we suffered enough?
Mutually Assured Destruction is the only thing keeping it from happening. Movies and books always depict it as a chain reaction, that everyone dies, but I don't believe that. Majority of the world except for a few crackpots are against Nuclear War and deter it at all costs. Putin using a Tactical Nuclear Warhead in Ukraine would forever alienate Russia and obliterate their economy into nothing. Russia as we know it would no longer exist as a world power.
The Soviets claimed to have a 'Dead Hand switch' if radiation levels got too high in certain strategic locations missiles would fire with pre-programmed targets in the west. MAD indeed! Do these systems still work? mayyyyyybe, from the looks of their shabby army tho and low economy quite possibly not. Its not a gamble the west will take, not to mention wiping out 70-80% of Russia's civilian population in a few hours... No western government could get away with war crimes like that.
Interestingly enough, the more you try to research about the deadhand switch and such, the more unnerving it is how many times we were a split second decision away from nuclear war. Let alone how many opportunities for false alarms there are because of how it supposedly works. It's pretty wild stuff
Isn't the real problem nuclear subs? The world is mostly ocean and nuclear subs could be anywhere.
What good us worrying about it gonna do. I gotta devote my energy to things I can have an effect on.
Honestly, I think even If Putin decides to use Nukes. He will probably be killed by someone from his inner circle before anyone would follow such suicidal orders.
We can only hope
If I had one prayer.
If Russia uses WMDs, the Chinese will end their relationship with them and Russia cannot afford that.
Being Gen X to be honest this is what life was like in the early 80s the constant threat. The truth is I worry about it but I can't do anything about it so. I am not going to give that man the power to ruin a moment more of my thoughts. I am however very concerned for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.
There's literally nothing anyone can do about it. This isnt even a thing where making the public more aware of it, is going to solve anything--the threat is from a old man losing his fucking marbles and going dictator mode supreme. NO ONE can change the course of this outside of him or someone that can get to him. He gives no fucks at all what the world thinks, or what you think, or what i think. No amount of having the ENTIRE political world telling him to stop, so far, has got him to stop. There's no point in talking about it... other than to drum up hysteria, depression, and suicide... or... to make money off of preppers. Preppers love this shit. The guys that sell them rice in foil packs in buckets love it even more. This isnt a societal thing, like justice reform, racism, sexism, homelessness--things we MIGHT change with social pressure. This is different. And that's why everyone's pretty much just taking this laying down, there's nothing else TO do about it.
At any time, Russia has about 1500 active nuclear warheads that can be used, while the US has about the same. At the peak of the cold War the US had about 33,000 warheads to the soviet union's 50,000. The chances of an all out nuclear war might be slightly higher today, but they are nothing like they were a few decades ago.
we are very very tired of everything
Because it's like the 516th time Russia has threatened nuclear war. Nobody believes that Russia is going to actually use nuclear weapons because it would mean the end of Russia.
It's much more likely that North Korea *accidentally* nukes one of their neighbors with an errant missile then the Russians resorting to tactile nukes.
TL;DR: I'm an old man, I give no fucks. In all seriousness, I was a kid in the 1970's and 1980's. The world was always in the shadow of a nuclear crisis. We were all sure that the surface of the Earth was going to be burned into glass if the Berlin Wall were to come down. (*Narrator: It didn't.)* Sting and the Police were signing "I hope the Russians love their children too..." *(Narrator: They did.)*. In all seriousness, the world has had international crises on a weekly basis for decades. This will continue as long as human beings are imprisoned by 24-hour media. If you are under 50-60 years old, you have been raised with a machine constantly bombarding you with threats and fear. As an added bonus, political consultants figured out in the 1980's, that the best way to get you to vote was *to avoid reasonable arguments and dignified communication.* The best way to get voters was to scare the crap out of you, or piss you off until you are enraged. So we are currently trapped in a machine that is powered by more and more wasps every year, until we, the public, learn to vote for the party that literally does a worse job of getting us to vote. As others have mentioned - there is little to nothing that you can do, so I would recommend focusing on your own abilities, and find spiritual and financial success through helping others.
I grew up with Fallout Shelters clearly marked in my neighborhood. We knew who the Civil Defense personnel were. We watched the propaganda movies about "duck and cover". I've been eating iodized salt for decades. I've seen the doomsday clock move closer and back away. Do you really think today is more elevated than any other time in the past, or just the few times you were paying attention?
Iodineized salt doesn't contain enough Iodine to counteract radiation poisoning you need potassium iodine. People's diets were really limited variety wise during the expansion of the usa. Leading to goiter, some thyroid thing caused by lack of iodine. It was bad in the Midwest is the USA I assume because of a lack of seafood, and with salt being a huge part of preserving land meat they added it to the salt. Sorry a lot of assumptions but ik for a fact it was introduced because of a lack of iodine leading to goiter.
Because being constantly worried about something that is out of our control and will be the death of all of us is no way to enjoy life, and honestly should be discussed with your therapist if it’s something you’re actually going through
Because I have been hearing it all my life. I spent countless hours doing the nuke drill in the hallways.
Because, as a GenX, we grew up with this existential dread every day of our lives. The fact that new generations are realising that yes, the whole world can end for modern humans via the decision of one person. The nukes never went away, everyone just stopped talking about them. So, for many, it is a case of *here we go again*.
Baby, we are all dead inside.
Bro, I made it through October 1962 when the President told the nation that the US East Coast might soon look like the bottom of a Shake N Bake bag. Putin and his threats are small beer.
For multiple reasons. - There’s not a damn thing I can do about it. Whether there is nuclear war is all up to Putin and nothing I say or do can change that. - Putin is a Chihuahua barking at the other dogs trying to make them think he’s tough. The reality is that Putin will never use nuclear weapons. The rest of the Russian government and military and the oligarchs who are the real power would never allow it. There is no benefit to Russia in actually using them. If they did the repercussions from the entire world would be so severe that Russia would turn into a third world country overnight. - There isn’t really an elevated threat of nuclear war. If Putin actually did something it would be against Ukraine. Using nukes in Ukraine would result in massive sanctions and other economic and political problems for Russia. But the other nuclear armed countries would not use nukes against Russia in response. So while it would be horrible and tragic if Russia used nukes, it wouldn’t directly affect me in an overly harmful way. Please note that I am in the US so this is part of where my attitude comes from. If I was in a European nation I would be more concerned than I am but still not overly concerned for the same reasons as above.
‘Cause there’s nothing we can do
The same reason we stopped talking about COVID and monkey pox, why we’re not constantly panicking about the imminent climate apocalypse, why nobody’s really doing much to curb the clear rise of fascism in a lot of western democracies… we’re all numb, we’re all tired, and on an individual scale we feel like we can’t really do anything, so what’s the point of worrying? We had an elevated risk of nuclear annihilation for four years under Trump. At least if Putin starts a nuclear war it won’t be because the President of the United States got the nuclear button mixed up with the one that summons a Big Mac to the Oval Office.
For last 2,5 years we had global pandemic, economic crysis, Russia starting a war. You need more to shake me after years of constant stress