I fear that nuclear war could be happening soon…
Global tensions seem to be rising, and superpowers are allowed to be more and more reckless. It feels like the third world war is imminent, a nuclear war which would end everything.
I am so scared… I am so paralyzed to do anything now. Am I overreacting? Also, what should I be doing?
Exposure therapy: nuke yourself a few times. Your anxiety will vanish.
I do the closest thing I can, which is lick my smoke alarm every night and sleep with 1kg of banana next to my pillow.
Get involved and build resilience in your local community. It’s super beneficial for your mental health, social health and you can do something tangible that does make a difference. This resilience will help build and maintain and more importantly sustain the structural and social support for things like general strikes. It’s quite literally grounding in practice and people always need to eat. It’s a place to meet people that also care.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240105073255/https://effectiveactivist.com/zine/
It is only in the oppressor’s benefit to do otherwise. Remember these are the same people causing both issues.
Edit: Also check out !zines@slrpnk.net for inspiration. :)
Great advice
We all need each other. ❤️
More in the same vein:
Their linked guide is a great summary. The archive.org link above is partially a workbook to help people figure out where to start with these things too with considering personal abilities and needs… There are so many options!! !citizenscience@mander.xyz too, is a form of praxis through the building of public knowledge, skills and to help inform policy. No matter what happens, there’s always something to do.
I was born in 1975, and during the eighties a nuclear war was always just about to happen. I can’t tell you what you should be doing, for the most we just lived with it. What helped was there was no 24/7 news cycle back then, so maybe try to block out the news to maintain a healthy consumption level?
From what I understand, global nuclear war was an ongoing concern by the mid-50’s, when the nuclear arms race got in to full swing. Along the timeline of the ensuing Cold War, there have evidently been a shocking number of close calls, with global war being averted by a single individual in some cases.
Let that sink in, if you will-- a SINGLE … fecking … person choosing to do the adult and humane thing, for the good of all us other humans, and most life on Earth.
Holy shit, does that person(s) deserve one hell of a victory parade, y’know?!
Now one note of interest might be that the USSR’s cache of nuclear arms may not have been well-maintained over the years, so modern Russia might be sitting on a far more limited amount of live weapons than exists on paper. FWIW… which of course probably isn’t much, in the end.
Most of the problems and anxiety of the USA in 2025 comes down to the FACT that POTUS has more singular power than any king of any nation. No one is even hinting at changing that for the future.
What does an 80 year old man with dementia and one foot in the grave care about launching nukes? No one in a nation of pussies will stop him.
No one is even hinting at changing that for the future.
That’s not really true, though. AOC, Sanders and others have been ceaselessly vocal about these matters, directly influencing change. And unless there’s systemic, nationwide fraud at the voting booths in November (I mean, much more than the usual), then the so-called “GOP” currently in charge is going to be in deep trouble from that point on. At least going by precedent and current rules, which of course might be somehow subverted by the Orangies, such as a declaration of martial law, etc.
No one in a nation of pussies will stop him.
The people manning the actual equipment are still military lifers, far as I know. From what I understand, it’s those types of folks who’ve historically prevented global nuclear war every time there was a chance of it happening.
I actually think the threat of nuclear war is pretty low compared to other points in history.
Now the entire world turning into a Nazi state on the other hand
The best way to cope with the news is to ignore it. There is no reason to read about and obsess over things you have no power to change. Focus on your own life and the people around you, learn mindfulness and deeply ponder the structure of trees, the intricate shapes of the clouds, whatever nature is around you, and breathe.
yeh I’ve been doing just this a lot as of late… and Lemmy tell ya, there’s a lot of natural beauty in his world, from clouds to the fractal shapes of plant life (ferns esp). best not to worry about impending doom and things you cannot change.
The danger of nuclear war wouldn’t be the radiation but poisoned water, food, air, due to the vaporized stuff thrown high into the athmosphere.
Hope that helps.
That definitely helps putting my mind off of the fear of radiation. Thanks.
The billionaires don’t want all-out nuclear war, what they want is world domination by a few, over a literal slave class mix of humans and robots.
However, in case of imminent attack in an outbreak of a nuclear WWIII, the best plan is to drive toward the biggest city in your region, or stay put if you currently live in a big city.
I’ll take instant vaporization over whatever the survivors are going to need to deal with in the aftermath.
Yeah, the heightened potential for nuclear annihilation is terrifying but there’s frankly nothing you can do to survive it. Even if you somehow lived though the bombings, there’s no corner of the globe where starvation nor irradiation would not reach. The Earth would be uninhabitable and death would be certain for most land animals.
It’s a tragic way to die and for the human race to cease to be. But it’s only death and that’s certain to happen one way or another. There are countless other ways you could die that are either within or beyond your control. Many are far more likely to happen than nuclear war. Do you fret about being killed in an accident every time you step into a car?
I know it’s a lot easier said than done but try to live in the now rather than the future. Plan for tomorrow but recognize that, unlike the present, the future is not guaranteed. Don’t take the present for granted, go do things that bring you fulfillment now because ultimately that is the only time that you have control over.
I disagree. Someone who really prepares by storing food, having a place underground to survive for a period, and takes sufficient precautions could live. It would be expensive and difficult to prepare, and even then may not work, but I don’t think it’s true that people can’t try to prepare at all.
It’s certainly plausible to survive the initial bombings by taking adequate shelter, you may even be able to stock up enough provisions to survive for several months. The problem is what follows.
Nuclear winter is hypothesized to change the climate to the point where growing food is impossible, potentially for several years. Any animals you can hunt before they eventually succumb to starvation will have been poisoned by the fallout, their meat contaminated.
The fallout will spread across the globe, making the air you breathe toxic, either by radiation poisoning or by any number of harmful construction materials such as asbestos which is now particleized and floating freely.
If by some miracle you do still cling to life by this point, you will either be completely alone or surrounded by people just as desperate to survive as you are. Only in fiction do either of those situations end well.
So in that situation you need beans and rice and water purification (filters) that last 3 years. It’s expensive, but not impossible. There are people who already have that stored, and most of those people are very smart and well-prepared.
You can die any number of ways at any time for any reason. Why fixate on one? Probably more likely to die in an automobile accident or some mundane bullshit than nuclear war.
if you find you have constant anxiety or are having intrusive thoughts or are obsessed with something and are unable to control it then please please please see a doctor or therapist if you can
there are lots of approaches and therapies you can use to train your brain to cope with anything better and have more agency and feel a happier life
Just to be a devil’s advocate: fear is an evolutionary response and is there for a reason and is sometimes highly rational. Talking yourself out of fear to conform to society’s expectations is not always smart.
You step outside and touch some grass. If Lemmy is starting to affect your mental health, you need to put it down.
A weird thing I’ve found somewhat calming is to prepare for the worst. If you think that might calm you down, look up how to make a go-bag, so that if you were to find yourself in a situation where you’d have to evacuate, be it running to a bomb shelter for a few hours or permanently leaving your area, you’d have a bag with basic survival supplies (flashlight, first aid supplies, non-perishable food, drinking water, swiss army knife if you can get one, clothing) ready to grab. I find the thought that if the worst case scenario happens, I wouldn’t be completely unprepared. Of course, this doesn’t work for everyone.
Then there’s the general things people do to cope with these feelings: talk to someone, preferably a professional, find something to give you hope. That something can be a game, a craft, a friend, good news, etc.
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Buy potassium iodide tablets. If it happens and it’s too close, you won’t even know. If it isn’t too close, take the pills and become a wasteland raider.
Otherwise just live your life because nothing you do really matters concerning nuclear war. That’s like worrying about an asteroid impact.
Iodide only protects from iodine isotopes.
Frankly it doesn’t matter because if you’re close enough to need anti radiation meds, the lack of food, water, power, and shelter will be a much more pressing issue. The gist of my comment was supposed to be “go buy these pills for peace of mind because that’s about the only ‘preperation’ you can do for nuclear war. Really you should just relax and live your life”.
Think about it this way, if nuclear war does happen then you ain’t gonna have much time to worry about it.
The chance of that happening is insanely low. Superpowers have been threatening it since the 80’s and no one has any intention to do shit about it.
Also, everyone knows it’s a lose-lose situation- but no one will admit it. They all want everyone to believe they’ll be the only victors…
Did you forget about that dementia ridden, sociopathic, egomaniacal moron in the whitehouse? Man would fire a nuke by accident, let alone if someone had the audacity to criticize him in any way.
