Are you worried this is the start of ww3 and nukes will be used ?

[LovelyYellowLabrador]

Or do you think realistically no one will start to use Nuclear weapons

You do know that the power of nuclear warheads has increased somewhat since the 1940s Haribo?

My attitude is it’s no use panicking, there’s sweet FA I can do to influence the maniac or stop his terrible rampage so I am not going to waste my time.
I am older than most on here, I have lived through the many crises over the past 68 years.

God I thought these panicmongering threads had calmed down.

Exactly what’s the point of worrying anyway. Are you in a position to stop it if it happens?

As for being afraid of dying, well, you’re going to die one day, that’s a fact. So why worry about it?

I am not so much scared as angry.
I grew up in the era of 'Protect & Survive' & went on CND marches.
I remember arguing with my Mother re going to Greenham Common.
Now my teens are worried about the liklihood of nuclear action.

I am angry for the people of Ukraine. also for the ordinary Russians.
Also (less, we are not being bombed...) for us in the UK, facing 'eat or heat' decisions, made worse by corrupt & incompetant politicians.

No. I'm not worried. Not so much because I don't think it's likely. There's no point worrying. The last two years especially have taught me that

I'm more worried by the recent very high temperatures recorded at both poles. Not sure which will get us first, the narcissistic, sociopathic world leaders or our complete inability to accept and deflect the approaching climate change tsunami. Humanity feels like a pretty flawed species right now. I'm feeling pretty fatalistic !

No. Absolutely no point in worrying or being scared. There is literally nothing you can do about it so don’t waste your energy. Instead, use your energy on living the best way you can now. Enjoy life (as much as you can with things how they are now). We are the lucky ones here in the UK.

@TenRedThings

I'm more worried by the recent very high temperatures recorded at both poles. Not sure which will get us first, the narcissistic, sociopathic world leaders or our complete inability to accept and deflect the approaching climate change tsunami. Humanity feels like a pretty flawed species right now. I'm feeling pretty fatalistic !

I wouldn’t worry too much. It won’t be long until the majority of us can’t afford to put our heating on or run a car anymore - or go on holiday for that matter. There will be a sharp fall in the birth rate as young people won’t be able to afford to run a home let alone afford children. Oh, and there will be less consumerism as people won’t be able buy anything. Happy days 😒

@hariboqueen1
Russia has over 6 thousand nukes and the us has over 5 thousand. That's not counting the European countries that also have nukes ( alot less). Also as someone said upthread the technology for these wepons has drastically increased meaning their blast radius is larger.
It very much has the potential to end the world

FraterculaArctica perhaps it might be best for you to step away from opinion pieces/commentary for a while.

Absolutely not worried because a) Russia will also end up destroying themselves and Putin is too narcissistic to put himself in danger and b) if it does happen, we are all fucked collectively.

In essence, me worrying about it is completely futile.

So I’m buying garden furniture and hoping the 10 year guarantee is worthwhile!

No.

1. Putin might give the order but I don’t think it’d be carried out.
2. The last month has proven that the Russian military isn’t all it has claimed to be. There’s no guarantee if they did launch it that it’d actually launch / work with its intentions.
3. Mutually assured destruction. He’s probably aware that if ‘he’ presses that button, a corresponding button will be pressed to fire one back at Russia.
4. If it does happen and it does work as intended, there is fuck all you’ll be able to do in those three minutes.

No, not worried.

I can see a situation whereby the Ukranian armed forces fight Russia to a standstill (which appears to more or less already be the case), and logistical issues and financial pressures become so intolerable that Vlad, realistically, can't continue to prosecute the war conventionally to any worthwhile effect. In that case, I could see Russia making a show of using a singular tactical nuclear device, hopefully in an unpopulated area, in an effort to send an 'enough is enough' message to Ukranian resisters and draw the fighting to a close without the shame of having to admit a strategic defeat and wind down the conventional effort.

None of that need precipitate a full exchange between Russia and NATO though, because even if it does come to pass nobody in the West is going to be sufficiently inclined to use their own nuclear capability on Ukraine's behalf.

So no, while I think nuclear deployment is certainly possible, I don't think it's in any way likely to escalate into a full WWIII scenario. What I think the past month has shown though is that this truly is the culmination of 50-60 years of steady decline in Russia's credibility as a global superpower. If Vlad truly does have designs on taking on NATO as some suggest, and I don't believe he does, then that conflict is evidently going to be fought inside Russia itself, because right now I wouldn't back his armed forces to make it over the border if they tried to invade a NATO/EU member. The Baltic states have always been vulnerable to pretty much what is happening to Ukraine, and if he was going to try it on with NATO anywhere I'm pretty certain it would be there, but I think the past month will have been a rather sobering reality check for Putin which will have tempered any designs on escalating this. Right now, Vlad's only real issue is how to extricate Russia from this shambles he's created without losing so much stature that he's deposed from within, or triggers another 1990's-esque internal struggle for power within Russia itself.

Not really - we've been much closer before, with much more animosity and it didn't happen then.

I'm not sure 'reconciling ourselves to the possibility' is helpful - it's like the ultimate case of it being pointless to worry about the worst happening. It doesn't prepare you, it just makes you repeatedly mentally live through something awful that might not even occur.

OP I felt the same I really did and 100% get where you are coming from. The first 2 weeks my anxiety was through the roof and felt like I could barely function. I am slowly snapping out of it, it’s not great still but I’m in a much better place but I have resigned myself to the fact, if there is one then likelihood is we are all gone, my worrying isn’t going to stop it. If it doesn’t happen which I’m feeling slightly more optimistic about than say 2 weeks ago even though new threats etc have been banded around then I have spent my time not being happy and thats worse to me now. If they do do it I hope it’s at night when I’m asleep and I won’t even have time to think about it.

I would say I’m more worried about us getting involved on the ground but again nothing you or I can say to anyone to stop it. I’m still doom scrolling (won’t look at images or read stories from front line) but I feel it’s my way to be more in control of the situation by looking at the key headlines. You have to remember everyone in charge has a family and is unlikely to want to die

How do you define "WW3"?

As @FraterculaArctica points out, it's the after effects of a surprisingly low number of explosions that would wipe us all out.

As a species we will be stupid enough to blow ourselves up at some point...it's just a question of when, sadly, isn't it?

Do you not have an opinion of your own, @LovelyYellowLabrador ?

@FraterculaArctica

Those of you who aren't worried - is it because you think it won't happen, or you aren't worried about being snuffed out? This is what I can't get my head round... if someone close to you had say terminal cancer, you would expect to be upset and spend a lot of time talking about how to come to terms with it. Yet the likelihood of this happening to all of us and no-one seems remotely bothered!

I just can't see how that's the same unless you're saying you're certain it's going to happen and we're all going to die

@LovelyYellowLabrador

Or do you think realistically no one will start to use Nuclear weapons

If I'd chewed my nails everytime there's be a serious threat to my life I would be down to my elbows!

Well that's where the probability becomes important doesn't it. If it was (say) a 1:1000 chance, no it wouldn't be comparable. But other posters on this thread have also agreed they think it's likely (I'm guessing >1:2 chance). In those circumstances, then yes I can't understand why everyone appears so unbothered.

I don't think there are any definites about the inclination of our species, well I think it is important to remain hopeful.

The Russians didn't use them in Afghanistan (when no one would have cared) they aren't going to use them in Ukraine. Putin likes power and he won't have any if the world is bombed to glass.

I'm not religious but I think the sentiment of the Serenity Prayer is one to live by:.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

For the people so crippled by fear of what might be that they can't live the life they have, it makes your life infinitely better to DO something you can do. Write to your MP, take part in a protest, write to Putin if the mood takes you! We're making crafts to sell for donations for refugees. It's a tiny thing for them but it's massive for us. Don't just look for the helpers, be the helpers.

But those stats are not factual, you've plucked them out of nowhere based on this thread alone the title of which may attract many posters with disproportionate propensity for pessimism. Who knows?

I get where you are coming from but I'm not sure I can inflict that misery on my children.