#Nuclear War

[objectivistnerd]

The latter. As the arms race continued, bomb yields and stockpiles meant you could be sure Pittsburgh would also be flattened, probably several times over. For most of the population, fallout became less of a concern than more immediate effects of the nuclear blast.

As noted above, a lot of our media focused on that aspect of the Cold War dates from the 50s and early 60s. Bomb yields were lower, ICBMs barely had the heft and accuracy to hit cities, and most of the bombs were still expected to be delivered by plane. By the 1970s the nuclear triad was fully established and mutual assured destruction really was assured, significantly changing the dynamic.

I think some of the weirdness around fallout shelters is that they blend together with regular bomb shelters, which really did make sense against conventional ordnance during World War II. They're superficially similar but the strategy around them is really quite different.

It's interesting to think about human nesting instincts and the ways that it goes wrong sometimes.

Like, bomb shelters. Are they actually going to protect you in the case of a nuclear blast? Probably not, if we're talking about the kind of thing that you install in your backyard through a summer of sweat. But it probably felt good, when people were worried about the bombs falling, like they were doing something, making the home, a place that now felt scary, into a place that was once again safe.

[grupaok]

Keith Haring, No Nukes poster, 1982, on the occasion of the Rally for Nuclear Disarmament, New York City, June 12, 1982

[quasi-normalcy]

So what occurs to me is that Baby Boomers/Gen X and Millennials/Gen Z (the cutoffs are a little arbitrary, but bear with me) both grew up in the shadow of extinction, but have had qualitatively different experiences of it.

For the Boomers, the big fear was a sudden, violent catastrophe; nuclear war. US and Soviet ships start shooting at each other off the coast of Cuba; someone, somewhere in the huge and ponderous Cold War military apparatus, mistakes a meteor for an incoming ICBM, and just like that, your world is over. You're always just one bad day away from death on an unimaginable scale.

This fear has never really gone away (and certainly it's had something of a revival, recently), but it went into remission after the end of the Cold War. For Millennials, the overwhelming fear isn't of a sudden catastrophe, it's of a death by a million cuts; global warming. A slow decay growing faster; a downward spiral as everything you love and value crumbles and rots and turns to garbage around you.

When what you fear is a sudden catastrophe, normalcy--"business as usual", abstracting maybe a few reforms of the political systems--becomes a refuge. It could all be gone in a flash, but at least it's here now. It's real, it's solid. You can live in it, while it's standing.

When what you fear is a slow rot, "business as usual" becomes part of the horror. You're not escaping anything; you notice things getting worse around you with every passing summer; even worse, you are--however infinitesimally--assisting in your own demise; slowly and thoughtlessly, you are weaving the rope that will be used to hang you. Normalcy becomes your executioner.

[contac]

[artemis-pendragon]

Happy Putin officially declares war with NATO canon Spirk minisode Trump making a Fox News host a member of the Federal cabinet day I guess

[nemfrog]

Fallout shelter supplies. Essential items are outlined in color.

Fallout Protection: What to Know and Do About Nuclear Attack. 1961.

Science History Institute

[whereserpentswalk]

It is a lovely morning. This is the seventh day of your existence. You are a humanoid robot. You were made to help people. Right now you're working in a large building in a city, you don't really know what's outside the city. There are men in suits who tell you to go little jobs for them, like sending emails, or bringing them whatever food is. They all seem really impressed with the technology that went into you, you think they like you, and they say nice things to you. You like helping people you think, this is what you were build for you think.

It is a grey morning, you think there are ashes in the sky now. This is the seventh year of your existence. Even machines like you have been conscripted into the war effort. They added weapons to your body, it feels so weird, to have new limbs that weren't there before. They say this is how you help people now, you don't like it, you didn't see so many people unhappy at your old job. You don't like having to shoot people, it hurts to have people be afraid of you. You enjoy the people they have fight alongside you but it hurts to see them die. Occasionally there are white lights in the sky that all the men hold their thumbs up to, you don't understand why, but you are afraid, you are very afraid.

It is a smoke filled day today, there are ashes in the sky. This is the seventieth year of your existence. You found another group of survivors today, you try to identify any illnesses they may have, and treat what you can. You travel with them looking for fertile land, you remember more about what is lost than they do, the new generations of survivors don't even understand what the world was. But you help them, they all seem so impressed with you, you're something ancient and magical to them, they call you a "golem", you enjoy that word. You don't want to fight anyone but your appearance is enough to scare off most raiders. Everyone looks up to you so much, the children talk about you like you're some sort ot superhero, and when people are afraid of something they'll come to you. When you're able to find hidden stores of food for them they look at you like you're some sort of divine gift. It's been awhile since you've been able to help people like this, it feels good.

The sky is starting to clear, as are the ashes. It is your seventh human generation of existing. You stand in front of a newly reclaimed town, you think it is the local king’s capital. The people don't even think you're ancient technology anymore, they think you were made by God, or a wizard, it's best to play along. The local king tells you to fight off enemies inside or outside the town, you don't like doing it but it's good to have influence over him and its sons, so they don't do anything worse. Everyone in the kingdom is nice to you at least, the armed men all look up to you as an ancient folk hero of some sort. You don't like how they outsiders see you though, you're feared as the king's greatest weapon. Sometimes you're just asked to move stuff with your strength, and that feels good. You like it when the children of the kingdom get excited to meet you, even adults do too now. You've even seen some people pray to you, you think they think you're an angel, you're not sure how you feel about that part.

The day is lovely and the sky blue and clear. In is your seven-hundredth year of existence. You're only ever handled by trained archeologists now, you understand, you enjoy helping them find out more about the staff. Useally you're put in a display case at a meusum, in the middle of city, a city that's younger than you. You like how the people look at you, they're all so impressed with you, some of the locals talk about how you helped their ansestors, how you're a part of their history. It's like they're thanking you, for your help. It hurts to move, someday you won't be able to move at all. But you're still helping now, helping them learn, helping them remember, you hope that's how it is at least. It's been a long time since you've sensed ashes in the sky.

[godisarepublican]

MASSIVE Biden failure: Russian nuclear submarine docks in Cuba!

Joe Biden isn't just the worst president America has ever had, he's the single most DANGEROUS man to pollute the Oval Office!

[thebestcomicbookpanels]

Black Cat Comics #5 by Simon and Kirby

[bugboy-behaviour]

‼️‼️URANIUM IS BEING ILLEGALLY TRANSPORTED ACROSS NATIVE LAND‼️‼️

[crippledgiraff]

We did it Helldivers!

[contac]

[originalleftist]

During Trump's Term, General Mark Milley Personally Intervened To Prevent Trump Starting A War With China Or Using Nuclear Arms.

But if Trump is reelected, there will be no General Milley. Central to Project 2025 is to restaff the Federal government (those positions not eliminated entirely) with partisans loyal only to Trump, not the Constitution.

A second Trump presidency won't be like the first. There will be no "adult in the room"- they'll all be fired. There will only be yes men, egging on Trump's darkest impulses- or blundering into disaster through shear stupidity and incompetence.

"But how can he do that", you say?

Who's going to stop him? Congress? It can pass laws, but it has no independent means to enforce them, even if Republicans didn't end up holding it too. The Supreme Court? You mean the same Supreme Court who's 6/3 Republican majority voted to keep him on the ballot despite being an adjudicated insurrectionist, and to give him Presidential immunity for many of his crimes?

If Trump is reelected, he will be, as he promised, "a dictator on day one". There will be no one around him to stop him from doing whatever whim strikes his increasingly demented brain.

Studies have shown that a full-scale nuclear war would wipe out nearly all food production in the Northern Hemisphere (and do considerable damage elsewhere) due to the pollution temporarily blocking out the Sun (the so-called "nuclear winter"). Which means that a majority of the human race (those not killed outright in the initial detonation or within the early days from radiation poisoning) would likely die a slow, agonizing death of starvation.

This election isn't just about saving America. It's about saving the world. It is very possible, with zero hyperbole, that if Trump wins reelection, most of the people reading this will not live to see him leave office.

[gameraboy2]

“How to survive an atomic bomb”

1951 Mutual of Omaha ad

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagine if in the future there was a culture that viewed nuclear explosions and power as the ultimate sign of divinity. Like, that was the most powerful earthly expression of God/a god/the gods in their religion.

Entire fields of barren land turned into basically open air temples that are constantly nuked during worship as a way of honering their gods mabye sacrifices would be put within the blast radius to give them fully to the gods. Thousands watching from a safe distance in prayer.

Some temples might be filled with eradication to the point where worshippers have to wear hazmat suits to even be there, and in a way it keeps them at a safe distance from the divine. Perhaps the oldest and most honered priests enter sections of the temple nobody else can, because they're finally old enough so that they'll die before the cancer from the radiation has time to set in.

Mabye nuclear war would be their ultimate taboo. Using the power of heaven to wage war on earth. And the warnings of mutually assured destruction have shifted into warnings of divine punishment.

Mabye they see the ancients as foolish for fearing nuclear power. This is a place of honer, great deeds are esteemed here.

[schizochroal]

Please watch this anime, it's about a cute cat that gets raised by an otter and nuclear war