Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability%E2%80%93instability_paradox
More countries having nukes makes nuclear war less likely
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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Acceptance of mortality. Acceptance that it could happen at any time. And knowing that there are many, many potential causes that are entirely out of one's control.
I don't run around in fear about brain aneurysms.
The good thing is that I'm too old to go to war and my kids to young for that. Instead we'll be part of the smithereens that you see in the background behind an obviously disturbed reporter. I'll probably be a smudge in pinkish red color.
We lived through the Cold War in the '80s. It seemed like a very real threat and eventually even though nothing really changed until the wall came down, everyone kind of got used to it and went on as best we could.
Like we have more recently with Covid. That's still there and hasn't gone away. It's still as serious a threat as it was at the beginning. You know how you'd mostly forgotten about it but not really? Same deal.
If you can't form or find a community, find distractions.
And if you find out where the first bomb's going to hit, let me know because I want to be under it.
Most countries have some kind of "disaster preparedness" suggestions, be they for earthquakes, floods, tornados, WMDs, etc. A lot of these suggestions overlap: have a stock of food, know where important documents are, think about where you'd shelter, etc.
There will probably not be an extinction-level event. But at some point in your life you may experience an emergency where you need a stock of food, to know where your documents are, to have a place to shelter, etc. So maybe it'd help you out to make plans for what you'd do in case of a general emergency/disaster.
Here are a couple useful documents that were made in the US:
Wish I could upvote this five times.
OP, you have an emergency management agency of some kind for your area. They will have all kinds of info on how to prepare for any disaster (and they even know what kinds of disasters are most likely to affect your area).
If you're in the US, try Google county name and emergency management agency or state name emergency management agency. Follow their socials! Check out their webpages! And please please sign up for whatever alerting/notification system they use to update residents on ongoing/evolving events.
Come visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, At least you'll learn what happens...
Except you really don't. Hiroshima was a tiny bomb compared to what's currently aimed at you.
A thermonuclear missile can start a fire storm, that's a fire that creates it's own weather patterns. This fire storm will be the size of a US state. From a single missile.
Each state has dozens of missiles aimed at it, just waiting for the launch order.
The same sort of devastation will hit all of Europe, Russia, China, and basically the entire northern hemisphere.
It doesn't matter if you're in a hardened bunker either, because you'll just cook alive inside. That's if your bunker survives at all, because there's no bunker on earth that can survive a direct hit. Not under the White House, not NORAD, not even most deep mines.
And since every single nuclear power is "launch on warning", we're likely fucked. At any time, we are less than 30 minutes from complete extinction.
But since there's literally nothing we can do about it, I just don't think about it.
The closer you are to the blast, the better. This ensures a quick and painless death. If your'e really frightened of nuclear weapons, rest easy in a flat in a major city. You won't have to suffer any of the scary mutations or side effects of rural folk.
I think @DesertCreosote@piefed.blahaj.zone gave you a great breakdown, and I’ll add a little more.
I’ve worked with military technologies before. Unfortunately, I can’t give away many details for relatively obvious reasons. However, I can tell you with absolute confidence that in the case of a ICBM with a nuclear warhead being launched, there is a close to 0 chance it will ever land on Earth. In fact, ICBMs are almost entirely useless technology nowadays.
A nuclear warhead may also be delivered via plane, a la WWII. This too, is largely a nonissue. The odds of a plane getting deep enough into a country while carrying a weapon like that while under the level of surveillance that is currently going on are again, close to 0.
There’s a reason nobody has dropped any Nukes yet. It’s not because anyone is afraid of the consequences. It’s because it’s so close to impossible for it be an actual threat.
With all due respect regarding your desire for discretion, you're going to at least have to make an argument here, rather than an unfounded claim. Why will an attack with ICBMs be unsuccessful?
Yeah, Israel was able to launch a shit ton of Missiles into Iran, and some of the Iranian Missiles hit Israel, even through the Iron dome, the tightest missile defense system in the world.
- The tightest missile defense system in the world in public knowledge
- The actual system that is used for ICBMs wasn’t activated because these were considered “friendly” missiles by that system.
ETA: 3. Those missiles didn’t have nuclear warheads on them, so the good system wouldn’t have really cared even if they weren’t friendly
(X) Doubt.
Sure, missiles coming in from Iran were probably considered "friendly" by Israel...👍
Yes, the good system will magically discern which of the missiles are nuclear tipped when the time comes.
Also, it won't be missiles raining down once the shit hits the fan. It will be MIRVs. Good luck catching all of those with the secret, ultra capable ABM system that has been deployed to all likely target locations!
If you're willing to spend the money, a combination of THAAD, Patriot, and perhaps an Arleigh Burke or two parked off the coast might be able to catch a good number of warheads headed for e.g. NYC or DC but you cannot possibly cover every place in the country all at once.
Considered “friendly” by Israel
Not by Israel, by the system in place for nuclear warheads.
The good system will magically discern…
The system doesn’t have to, the people do. And they’re quite good at it.
If you’re willing to spend the money…
You are absolutely right that resources would have to be moved around. This system, however, is not owned or controlled by a single country. How those resources would get moved around would be way above my pay grade
Replied down the chain
Play fallout
Ask the folks that we're alive during the cold war. They got the good tips.
(Nihilism was valid)
They told us to get under our desks. I'm not sure that will work...
Yes you are overreacting. What country do you live in? Is there a military facility next door to you?
Something that has helped me recently:
"The only thing that is guaranteed is that nothing will stay the same."
People will probably not agree with me, but I think:
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You are not overreacting, although AI sometimes tells me that risks of nuclear disaster aren't that high and I'm over-estimating.
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You can control things somewhat by preparing as much as you can to survive such a situation
But... preparing to try to survive nuclear war will require radical action possibly, especially if you live in a risky area that is more likely to be impacted.
What is preparation? It means getting the Potassium Iodine tablets, it means having food stored, it means having solar backups, ideally it means having a place where you can survive underground, and it means not living anywhere near a likely target. It requires major changes, expenses, and enduring hardship if you are wrong or right, but also feeling exasperated you spent money and wasted time if nothing happens.
I feel like there are two competing ways to look at this situation. 1) The elite control society, and they would not want to make society unlivable for them and their children, therefore nuclear war is an idea primarily to scare us and control us. The other option is 2) no one is steering the ship, the elite are greedy psychopaths and who knows what the hell will happen, and eventually conflict likely is going to happen and it will be ugly.
In World War 2, before Hitler came into power, some Jews in Europe were like "I'm worried about this situation, the political situation here is generally iffy, I'm getting the fuck out of here" and left and went to America... and then didn't die as a result. Fear sometimes is what saves people, even if it seems crazy. I realize immigration to a new place is much harder in today's world (especially to the USA, but in a global conflict, the USA probably wouldn't be a great place to be).
Some advice about moving away from a major city may not be enough. Don't be near a major city, military base, critical infrastructure... and then, that actually will only save you in a limited strike situation. In a worst case situation, everyone near the strikes is dead, and only people far far away survive (not near the countries in conflict), and even those people would struggle with food shortages, radioactive fallout spreading across the globe. Just being in rural America not near bases or cities may not be enough.
You either use that fear to prepare, or you accept that there is a possibility death could happen from a lack of preparation, as can death happen at any time, and take up Buddhism or meditation or religion or ways to carry on and accept that death is sometimes a part of life.
There is a YouTube personality, who also shills products and is sort of an alarmist, called Canadian Prepper. He's worth checking out, but I would shop around and not just buy from him. Many of his videos are informative but also alarmist, but could also one day prove prescient.
The only thing you can do is move away from a major city. and after that you can't do shit. So don't worry about it. it's fine
check out that movie Dead Man's letters. it's really good.
Well, I had the realisation that the human race is a cancer to the planet, nukes might just be the chemotherapy the planet needs to survive. I was getting really distraught about the environmental crisis and concluded that nuking everything might be a way out. It gave me an odd sense of peace