Would you even want to survive a nuclear fallout?

[Whose]

Seeing loads of threads about bunkers and prepping etc etc

I have a friend who talks about this a lot and is deeply unimpressed with my stance of "honestly, I wouldn't want to survive the apocalypse anyway".

I like good cheese, and chocolate, I like wasting time on the Internet and going on holiday. I like hot showers.
The apocalypse sounds like it sucks. I haven't the first clue how to season a rat roasted on a stick, and cockroaches scare me. Camping is shit.

AIBU to think that in the case of a nuclear fallout, just instantly being wiped out sounds like the far nicer option?

I wouldn't either. Watching the Walking Dead always makes me hope I would be the first bitten. If a nuclear bomb was going to hit, I would like to be right under it and dead in a second.

I was a teenager in the 80s and I knew about it. Threads was talked about quite a bit. We knew we were living under a constant threat, but I never experienced anything as tense as it is now. The last tense moment was the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I shall die as one of them.

My adult child would be dead if a bomb hit in or near London. Even if that was the only bomb that hit I'd not care about living afterwards and would want to find a painless way to die. Any post war government would be wise to quickly legalise euthanasia for those willing to opt in so that the remaining resources could be concentrated on those best able to survive.

I'm old enough to have had discussions like this before -maybe 20 years ago. In 20 years time hopefully you'll all be looking back at this.

The government won't be organised or equipped enough to carry out euthanasia. People will just be left to it.

It's madness that we are even discussing this many years after the end of the Cold War. For many of us I'm sure we would never have dreamed we'd be facing the same questions as forty years ago, no matter how small the chances are.
It's really quite chilling to be actually discussing it with my children in 2022.
My 21 year old said she'll go and find a lovely field and lie down and watch the magic (her words!) before lights out.
I'd quite like to give living a go, even for a short while, just out of morbid curiosity

@Gardeningcreature

All those saying how do you know what it would be like clearly are too young to have lived through the Cold War and before. Everyone was constantly under the threat of some maniac launching a nuclear war. We spoke about it at school, we watched videos on how to protect yourself if a nuclear war broke out. We saw images of desolation and pictures of how you would die painfully and slowly afterwards. I read Z for Zackaria. Lots of our teachers were CND supporters.

OMG! I did Z for Zackaria at school and I could never remember the name of the novel, only that I enjoyed the book, thought that the man was a loon and the dog's affections were easily bought.

Thank you! 35 years I've been trying to remember the name of that book!

I don't remember Threads but we watched The Day After at school and that haunted me. And I remember a few of my friends went on CND marches back in the early 80s when we were teenagers.

I'd like to think I'd step up to the plate if I did survive but who knows?

@drivinmecrazy she would need to stay indoors. It's not like how she imagines it I'm afraid.

I am fully prepared. We were brought up on When The Wind Blows. I have a number of tables and plenty of tea.

I remember doing my first load of CBRN training when I was in the army and it scared me beyond belief Finding out about the different kinds chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons out there and their effects on the human body and it was so much NOPE in one presentation I can’t even begin to explain it I’d definitely rather be close to the epicentre and be vaporised instantly than survive the blast and die slowly and painfully, potentially taking years to finally succumb. Anyone who’s watched the HBO series “Chernobyl” and seen how those poor firefighters ended up will know what I mean. What a horrible way to die Id be travelling as close to the impact zone as I could get, or offing myself soon after impact.

You do realise that Japan was nuked twice in 1945. Do you think the people of Japan would rather all be dead? This thread is a bit tasteless.

It would be goodbye from me 👋 with the kids in tow if possible
Dh can make up his own mind, but I’m not sticking about!

No way I've read too many post apocalyptic novels

I’m in the 3rd degree burns zone if it dropped on London, I’d also be most likely the last member of my family Alive as they are all in London itself. I’ve got a really strong instinct to survive, I couldn’t just walk into the abyss.

We see repeatedly how we act as a population when there is a lockdown or an inch of snow on the ground. Pretty much everyone for themselves and the inhabitants of their home 1st to 50th, and they'll think about anyone else after that.

I think if we survived it would be very much like The Stand. Gangs of thugs with weapons taking whatever they want from whoever they find, from loo rolls to water to women/children. Extremely grim.

Anyone who’s watched the HBO series “Chernobyl” and seen how those poor firefighters ended up will know what I mean. What a horrible way to die sad Id be travelling as close to the impact zone as I could get, or offing myself soon after impact.

And the people who did not have to expose themselves to the actual hotspot have survived. The stoicism and actions of those firefighters and others like them contributed to that survival. Altriuism and optimism are instincts that ensure our survival.

Humanity has always existed on the edge of a precipice and, for all our terrible faults, we have achieved immense things and are capable of so much more.

EH White has words of comfort from a different period when people were losing faith in humanity (1973).

lettersofnote.com/2012/01/06/wind-the-clock-for-tomorrow-is-another-day/

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

I'm curious as to why people believe you instantly succumb should a bomb fall. In the immediate blast radius you would, but it's usual to survive outside the radius, depending upon how large the bomb has been. The majority of the population would survive, albeit with injuries and then the subsequent radiation sickness of course. Then, we'd have to deal with infrastructure collapse and riots etc.

You don't just pop outside and get instantly vaporised and know nothing about it.

People need to investigate whether they live near a possible target and, if they don't, get their heads around what they would do if they survived. Even if you're not interested in medium to long term survival, you would be possibly faced with a few weeks of life.

Panic reaction often kills people who would otherwise survive.

Evidence from places such as Chernobyl and other cases of radiation exposure indicates that its effects are over-stated and that a significant number inexplicably survive high doses with little immediate after-effects, although cancer rates can rise in survivors. But not terrifyingly so.

And you can take iodine in the correct form and calcium to lessen the likely effects of radiation.

Its not as if we don't have technology in place to grow food in covered areas away from contaminated soil.

I think I’d try and survive.
I live near a main target though, so I’m not sure I would be able to.
I think the worst would be everything that happens afterwards. It would be every man for himself. Although you never know, maybe it would bring about the best in humanity (what’s left of it anyway).

I think I would try to survive while also procuring a suicide kit to take if it becomes clear that I would die of radiation poisoning. There is a good Australian TV film about this scenario.

Is anywhere streaming The Road?

This book shows a not entirely negative side to a nuclear power accident:
waleslitexchange.org/en/books/view/llyfr-glas-nebo-the-blue-book-of-nebo

@Tilltheend99

You do realise that Japan was nuked twice in 1945. Do you think the people of Japan would rather all be dead? This thread is a bit tasteless.

I suspect people are thinking that, 75 years on, nuclear warheads are rather more potent. And that there now exists the doctrine of mutually-assured destruction.

@ChateauxNeufDePoop

I watched Threads at school. If that's remotely accurate (which I believe it is, particularly re nuclear winter) then surviving a serious nuclear incident is definitely not something I'd want to go through.

This film is grim. Definitely don't want to be living through that I agree. cxx

@EmmaGrundyForPM I watched The Road once and I honestly agree with you. Of all the films I have ever watched I will never watch it again. Apparently the book is even more distressing.

I wouldn’t want to survive as negative as that sounds.