Doomscrolling and getting nervous

[Faith786]

I keep seeing horrible things happening in Central Asia and the Middle East. Scary thoughts come to my mind. E.g. Are we going to have a World War 3? Someone please reassure me...

[dismalist]

I keep seeing horrible things happening in Central Asia and the Middle East. Scary thoughts come to my mind. E.g. Are we going to have a World War 3? Someone please reassure me...

Nuclear weapons have made World War III extremely unlikely. The balance of terror has been working.

Doesn't mean we can't have some unpleasantness here and there.

[mahagonny]

I keep seeing horrible things happening in Central Asia and the Middle East. Scary thoughts come to my mind. E.g. Are we going to have a World War 3? Someone please reassure me...

That's funny. I see horrible things happening here.

[Faith786]

That's funny. I see horrible things happening here.

I didn't realize we were also being bombed and hit by rockets right now.

[Ruralguy]

If a Mideast flare up was going to cause World War III, we'd all be dead already.

Also, I don't think there is as clear alignment between sides in those skirmishes and the world powers as there once was.

[dismalist]

Also, I don't think there is as clear alignment between sides in those skirmishes and the world powers as there once was.

What a pity! Never thought I'd miss the Cold War. :-)

[Faith786]

Nuclear weapons have made World War III extremely unlikely. The balance of terror has been working.

Doesn't mean we can't have some unpleasantness here and there.

I thought nuclear weapons in the wrong hands precisely makes angry regimes/states more likely to do something dumb and scary, and cause a major nuclear chain reaction all over the world. Maybe I've seen too many apocalyptic /post-apocalyptic movies...

[dismalist]

Nuclear weapons have made World War III extremely unlikely. The balance of terror has been working.

Doesn't mean we can't have some unpleasantness here and there.

I thought nuclear weapons in the wrong hands precisely makes angry regimes/states more likely to do something dumb and scary, and cause a major nuclear chain reaction all over the world. Maybe I've seen too many apocalyptic /post-apocalyptic movies...

As long they're not only in the wrong hands, deterrence goes through ... .

[Anselm]

Well, it helps to live far from any target.   As Bill Burr told his audience in Philadelphia " the terrorists will never attack your #$%@ city".    There were a few moments when we almost went to war with the USSR over faulty warnings of incoming missiles. 

[dismalist]

This started off about a possible world war. There is reason to believe that is not in the cards.

As for terrorists, keep the police strong! :-)

[Sun_Worshiper]

Nothing happening in MENA atm has a world war feel to it. And while nuclear annihilation is inevitable, it probably won't happen any time soon.

[mahagonny]

That's funny. I see horrible things happening here.

I didn't realize we were also being bombed and hit by rockets right now.

I was thinking of the surge in violent crime and drug addiction. Yesterday I took a walk for 5.3 miles. I saw four discarded hypodermic needles. And not in what we would call bad parts of the city.

[Wahoo Redux]

That's funny. I see horrible things happening here.

I didn't realize we were also being bombed and hit by rockets right now.

I was thinking of the surge in violent crime and drug addiction. Yesterday I took a walk for 5.3 miles. I saw four discarded hypodermic needles. And not in what we would call bad parts of the city.

My man, you are echoing the fears that people have had for generations.  We will survive.

And no matter what, things are better now than they were in the '30s, the '40s, and the '70s. 

Relax. 

[Faith786]

Well, it helps to live far from any target.   As Bill Burr told his audience in Philadelphia " the terrorists will never attack your #$%@ city".    There were a few moments when we almost went to war with the USSR over faulty warnings of incoming missiles.

I'm not sure about the past but recently Russian military aircrafts have been harassing American fisherman off the coast of Alaska and warning that they will launch missiles targeting the fisherman. The oil pipeline hacking was also thought to originate from Russia. To me these seem like legitimate threats.

[marshwiggle]

I keep seeing horrible things happening in Central Asia and the Middle East. Scary thoughts come to my mind. E.g. Are we going to have a World War 3? Someone please reassure me...

Keep in mind that since Trump left office, viewership of all kinds of news has dropped precipitously. News organizatio$ need eyeball$, so they have to $earch for anything that can be $old as a potential cri$i$ to get viewer$.

As others have mentioned, there's sadly nothing particularly new about this; it just gets more attention to fill up the news cycle.