7d ago

Why we should worry about nuclear weapons again

The prospect of global destruction in the Cold War has faded from people's consciousness, but the prospect of living on a nuclear wasteland remains.

15 comments

Who cares about maybe nukes when we have guaranteed global warming.
- In an ironic twist of fate one threat would fix the other.
  
  It's an ongoing joke in several futuristic fandoms like Star Trek and Futurama
  Humanity beats global warming by going through nuclear winter caused by global nuclear war.
Or be gen-x and been worrying about them all along since that’s how you grew up.
At this point, getting nuked is the good ending.
The biggest problem is that Trump wants to
He is an idiot child, and he's itching to press every button
He also sees sending a nuke as the most "dominant power" thing he could do
It's a sad indictment on America that this is where things are right now
There are so many people there who deserve better, but it's just a broken country
- The biggest problem is that Trump wants to
  Remember last time when he suggested nuking a hurricane? Ah, good times when one could still pretend he wasn't serious about this shit.
Ah yes. Better watch ooout. ruskies have nookies. They may useeeee it.
Nuclear waaaaar. Nuuuuuucleaaaaar. WWWWWWAAAAAAAARRRRRRR.
paniced hand waving
Fuck off already.
- "How about a nice game of chess?"
I mean, vis a vis Russia and China, the equation hasn’t really changed.
What has changed:
low key pretty certain that orangeboi wants to set one off just because he can, because he has a psychopathic toddler mindset
nuclear proliferation is the new black. As a direct result of the non-Russian signatories of the Budapest Memorandum doing effectively fuck-all to concretely back the security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity guarantees laid out in the agreement, it’s very obvious to any geopolitical actor worth their salt that the Memorandum is worth far less than the paper it’s written on. Nukes are the absolute, final word in territorial and sovereignty guarantees. Nobody will invade you if a possible response is “we will start glassing your cities”.
- it’s very obvious to any geopolitical actor worth their salt that the Memorandum is worth far less than the paper it’s written on.
  This has always been the case. Treaties are worthless if your opponent has more military might than you and decides you're its next target because fuck you that's why. After what happened with Ukraine, no country is ever going to give up their nukes again.
  
  Well, yes and no.
  We COULD have created a world in which security guarantees backed by major powers and/or alliances could serve as an effective guarantee of territory and sovereignty. All it would have taken is the geopolitical will to actually meaningfully assist Ukraine way back in 2014. But we didn’t, and here we are.
Nah, I'm good

15 comments