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Bioshutt t1_j5zq99m wrote

The doomsday clock is akin to the Defcon system that the US uses but in an easier to understand for your average person. The closer the clock gets to midnight, the closer we are to nuclear war or the end of the world. With Putin constantly threatening nuclear war in Ukraine that pushes us closer to the proverbial midnight. In all honesty, it scares me because I live in a very military oriented city (I can count the number of military installations on both hands) on the coastline of the United States which means that my city is a prime target for a nuclear warhead to be dropped on our heads. When this war in Ukraine ends, I believe we will see the doomsday clock get farther away from midnight.

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PersonNumber7Billion t1_j5zrz0a wrote

The Doomsday Clock is put out by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Atomic scientists are not necessarily political or military experts. It's an emotional appeal to get people to think about how tenuous our safety is in the age of nuclear weapons. But it shouldn't be taken as an accurate gauge of how close we are to nuclear war.

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123blaze t1_j5zuzk5 wrote

while you are correct i would like to add that there are 10 members on the bulletin of atomic scientists that have won nobel prizes for their scientific contributions. i believe there are a couple high ranking college professors on the bulletin as well.

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>Eden is senior research scholar (Emeritus) at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Her scholarly work focuses on the military and society; science, technology, and organizations; and US nuclear weapons history and policy. Eden’s 'Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation' won the American Sociological Association’s 2004 Robert K. Merton award for best book in science and technology studies. Her current research and writing asks how a specific US military planning organization has enabled very good people to plan what, if put into action, could or would result in the deaths of tens of millions of people. In other words, how do US military officers make plans to fight and prevail in nuclear war?

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jgzman t1_j6167gp wrote

> But it shouldn't be taken as an accurate gauge of how close we are to nuclear war.

I mean, we are, at any moment, about five minutes away from a nuclear war.

Any other measure is just someone trying to figure out how likely someone is to push the proverbial button.

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D-AlonsoSariego t1_j63hre9 wrote

And even if they were it would still not be very accurate. These kind of things that try to add quantifiable values to politic/social things are rarely accurate

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SadMacaroon9897 t1_j5zrnjg wrote

The difference though is that it largely makes no difference if they say 60 seconds to midnight or 1 hour to midnight: The state of the world does not depend on the clock. DEFCON in contrast directly impacts the state of the world...because it causes a change in the world (US military readiness).

In addition, the organization behind the Doomsday Clock has an incentive to be provocative and get into the news and drive fundraising.

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LockeClone t1_j5zsc5j wrote

They're competing agendas though. DEFCON is meant to inform institutions about which procedures and attitudes should be adopted and it's USA-centric.

The clock is meant to generally inform laymen what a board thinks is going on in the world that might potentially cause horrible events to occur. It's an easy way to contextualize world events for people who aren't experts... Which is almost surely everyone on this thread, myself included.

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Mayor__Defacto t1_j62jl8t wrote

DEFCON informs what posture the US Military (and thus, any other institution globally that cares what the US Military is doing) is taking. It has very tangible effects on US Military personnel and how quickly they are expected to respond, and the storage state of various assets. For example, at DEFCON 3, you would expect the USAF to essentially have weapons staged at all times to be fitted to aircraft; maintenance crews ready around the clock, and so on.

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dillrepair t1_j607w5h wrote

So we are at Defcon 3 right per the indicators used in osint right now in case anyone wants to know.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j5zslh0 wrote

Try living in the UK mate. Putin has already made serveral implied threats that the UK will be his main target.

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[deleted] t1_j5ztgsy wrote

[removed]

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timegoodaforhere t1_j5zuunj wrote

It wont happen. Russia drops a single nuke and their country will be obliterated in minutes. Putin is a dickhead, but he's not stupid enough to do that.

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UglyWoods t1_j5zxb8s wrote

Cornered animals are when they are most dangerous.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j5zz3o6 wrote

There's a system in place that would stop him of he wantes to nuke anyway. Look up when Russia nearly started nuclear war by accident.

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AldusPrime t1_j604is3 wrote

That wasn’t a system.

That was one man going against his training and orders.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j605bto wrote

Right. So what you're saying is it's a system thst filtered down to one man who made a choice? So a system then?

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AldusPrime t1_j609pjh wrote

How can I make this clearer?

One man went against the system he was trained on.

It was him refusing to follow the system.

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CommunicationFun7973 t1_j63ayoo wrote

They learned from that. Very few men can stop the order. Very, very, very few. Iirc it is pretty much two buttons at putins disposal. "Fire nukes" "run test firing nukes that is indistinguishable from the real thing to lower levels"

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timegoodaforhere t1_j60a7ah wrote

How can I make this clearer. That's the fucking point 🤣

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CommunicationFun7973 t1_j63b3nq wrote

Read my comment above this. They learned from that and now there are very few people who can stop it, and putin has surrounded himself with people as loony as he is, and likely lies to them a lot to keep them scared and more likely to follow said orders.

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UglyWoods t1_j601r5o wrote

I hope you don't often bet the lives and futures of the human race on the courageous actions of one man.

I would also implore you to look up THE MANY times we (as a population) have nearly nuked ourselves to dust, and that's just in the last 70 years.

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dercavendar t1_j604frm wrote

To be fair, the last 70 years is essentially the entire history of us being capable of nuking ourselves at all…

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musubitime t1_j60qd0r wrote

It’s not a great analogy. A cornered animal is alone and in mortal peril. Putin only risks his legacy at this point.

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CommunicationFun7973 t1_j63ark3 wrote

His legacy is all he cares about. I suspect he is also legitimately delusional and sees a huge threat to Russia itself.

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Darkwaxellence t1_j5zxp0w wrote

They put dirty bombs in vans not airplanes.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j5zydqs wrote

Wtf does this have to do with my comments?

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Darkwaxellence t1_j5zz46w wrote

They don't have to drop a bomb out of an airplane. Every spy satellite in the Eastern hemisphere would see it coming. Conventional ICBM launches and Stratospheric bombers are easily tracked and could be destroyed before reaching target and also allowing time for retaliatory strikes.

No one is dropping or launching.

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jgzman t1_j616u8h wrote

> Conventional ICBM launches . . . could be destroyed before reaching target

Source, please?

> They put dirty bombs in vans not airplanes.

It takes a while to get vans to the target, unless you've pre-positioned them. Plus, a ground-burst is not gonna do the kind of city-obliterating damage an airburst does.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j5zz99g wrote

Drop is a euphamism ffs.

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Darkwaxellence t1_j5zzuic wrote

Not when you're talking about nuclear devices. People should understand what the realistic threats are. I agree that Putin does not want to get annihilated by a retaliation strike. So they would be much more subtle. No one would immediately know who to counter-strike against. There are at least 8 countries in the euro-African sphere that have nuclear weapons and some reason to want to use them.

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timegoodaforhere t1_j601esn wrote

Oh fuck off mate. Cba with pedantic bell ends on Reddit telling me what it means when I say something.

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AldusPrime t1_j604fas wrote

You’re assuming he’s still making rational decisions.

Humans are never rational. When they have a bruised ego or are scared, they’re even less rational.

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MonkeyWithTheMohawk t1_j60eo02 wrote

Elon Musk and Neuralink are the ones doing everything. They're using that they refer to as a satellite communication system to take over not only the US, but Russia and other countries to start WW3 and stage the Apocalypse.

http://www.goodvsevil.online/good/

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Heap_Good_Firewater t1_j603esd wrote

> my city is a prime target for a nuclear warhead to be dropped on our heads.

That's a good thing. Better than dying of radiation poisoning, starvation or violence.

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> When this war in Ukraine ends, I believe we will see the doomsday clock get farther away from midnight.

Depending on how it ends, but probably.

>With Putin constantly threatening nuclear war in Ukraine that pushes us closer to the proverbial midnight.

That makes sense, but are we really closer now than during the Cuban Missile Crisis? There was literally one dude on a Soviet sub that voted not to start a nuclear war.

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SleepWouldBeNice t1_j6186gn wrote

They did mention climate change too. Clock won’t go back as far as we’d like.

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Bioshutt t1_j618ifb wrote

We won't get close to 17 minutes to midnight, but hopefully 10 minutes to midnight

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PoochusMaximus t1_j5zwraj wrote

Ayyup. Live quite near one of the premier ammunition research and development facilities on the east coast. If it was targeted i probably wouldn’t even notice getting smoked. Also I’m about an hour from NYC so yea. Two high target places.

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cdulane1 t1_j63amg2 wrote

Is this “ayyup” akin to the Russian book “fathers and sons” by chance?

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PoochusMaximus t1_j645hmz wrote

Oh nah. Just a turn of phrase I’ve picked up from somewhere. More like “ah yes” or “I agree with similar…”

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dardios t1_j5zwy0t wrote

You must be in Hampton Roads. Good luck if nuclear war breaks out. That and SD are FUCKED.

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promixr t1_j60jock wrote

I live in New York City and if nuclear war breaks out I’ll probably be vaporized in the first 20 mins or so…

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E_Des t1_j61195s wrote

I feel that, grew up about 50 miles from a major Air Force base.

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lofty99 t1_j61pb9b wrote

If it all hits the fan rather than a single city low yield strike, I personally think to be under one is the best option. If we launch most of the available bombs there will be a hell on earth for any survivors

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Bioshutt t1_j61qmzx wrote

The fallout games are the best case scenario

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Rerikhn t1_j603v16 wrote

Yes yes, evil Russians etc etc, you seem to forget who first used nuclear weapons and for what purpose and on whom. If it wasn't for the constant interference in other countries, everyone would live more peacefully. Imo, it is absolutely obvious which country is constantly making wars on the other continent, when there hasn't been one on its own for a long time. If you don't understand it, make a correlation between wars and who profited the most from them.

If the Russians had not armed themselves with their nuclear weapons at the time, this country would have simply not existed, it would have been bombed by Churchill.

"Operation Unthinkable" just Google it.

The Russians have simply had enough of dancing to other people's tune and watching the expanding military bases under their noses, responding for the first time in a long time with aggression, of which they have been warned about the possibility NOT ONCE. But nobody cares, do they?

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jezra t1_j5zq78h wrote

The amazing Iron Maiden song "2 Minutes to Midnight" needs to be updated

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danger522 t1_j5ztwmz wrote

NINE-TY! SEC-ONDS! TO MIIIIIDNIGHT!

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General_Rope1995 t1_j60m4bp wrote

Idk why but I read this in the rhythm of “NO! SLEEP! ..TIL-BROOKLYNNNN!!”

Edit: I’ve never heard that Iron Maiden

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YumericanPryde t1_j5zvix7 wrote

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

Song by R.E.M.

The first thing I think of.

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ainRingeck t1_j609qgr wrote

🎵That's great it starts with an earthquake...🎵

That'll be playing in my head for the next hour now...

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Nanda_Rox t1_j60l1ty wrote

Birds & snakes & aeroplanes, & Lenny Bruce is not afraid...

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Lord0fHats t1_j5zs16l wrote

Nothing because the whole thing is kind of meaningless.

I've just seen so many stories about the clock and 'x to midnight' that it basically means nothing, especially when they only ever move it closer and the criteria for moving it is however the people running it happen to feel at the time.

There's no real object-based analysis before this exercise.

Honestly, I'm more annoyed that some day some idiot is going to say 'the doomsday clock was right' and while the nuclear hellfire is enveloping us all my only solace will be 'if all you do in your life is watch paint dry, are you a genius because it finally dried, or a waste of life who spent it watching a blank wall wondering when the paint would dry?'

I'll just take that last word and call it a win, because the last thing anyone should give a shit about in the world is this silly clock exercise and the egos behind it.

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ogsixshooter t1_j5zzwys wrote

The clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has since been set backward eight times and forward 17 times for a total of 25, the farthest from midnight being 17 minutes in 1991, and the nearest being 90 seconds, set on January 24, 2023.

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[deleted] t1_j6356ql wrote

I saw a tweet the other day about it and thought it was spot on:

​

The Doomsday clock is so mean like whose idea was it to just terrorize the helpless masses by reminding them that billionaires are getting closer than ever to wiping us all off the planet from the safety of their rural compounds and/or megayachts.

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Devadander t1_j601pxd wrote

It’s dumb. We created it 40 years ago to symbolize how close we are to catastrophe, and then have done absolutely nothing to change how close we are to catastrophe. Lame

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Heap_Good_Firewater t1_j601zj4 wrote

This clock was started in the late 1940s. I think it has become meaningless as a comparative risk measurement metric. It may still be useful as a discussion starter, of course.

The problem is that the clock gets much more press coverage when it gets closer to midnight than ever before, so the incentive is to exaggerate.

We are definitely closer to "doomsday" than before the Ukraine war, but are we really at greater risk than during the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Viet Nam war, or the Brezhnev era? It seems unlikely.

The clock should have remained as a way to measure the risk of nuclear war exclusively. That is still the only doomsday (end of human civilization) scenario that humans have any control over. Maybe add AI and nanotechnology in the future when they become a credible threat to the species.

Nowadays, they include things like climate change, Covid, and the "breakdown of global norms".

These are all big problems, but none of them threatens human civilization with annihilation.

  • Covid is largely abating, outside of China
  • Climate change could cause 89 million excess deaths (directly and indirectly) by 2100, according to worst-case credible estimates. This is terrible, obviously, but it is unlikely to end civilization. The human population will see a net increase over that time span.
  • The breakdown of global norms and trust in institutions does make war more likely, but they made little effort to quantify this risk.
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12kdaysinthefire t1_j60plcg wrote

It’s a real clock, set by real people, to represent their best guesses.

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Ludwik2006 OP t1_j61c2qc wrote

scary but real and i am scared of real people. Humans like us that can change history with in 90 seconds omg,....... i need tequila

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riffraffbri t1_j5ztkib wrote

There was another discussion on Reddit where the OP asked, "Who would win if the US fought Russia," and all these commenters were going on about how we would kick their ass. Have they not heard that Russia still has nukes, and have they not considered whether Putin would use them if he were desperate?

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Arentanji t1_j60ikbb wrote

Russia is losing a conventional war in Ukraine, against Ukraine.

They would lose a conventional war to the US much faster.

Nukes against Nukes? Russia loses again. But no one would be around for a victory parade, maybe.

The US has a larger, more modern nuclear triad than Russia. So if Russia launches their weapons, US launches their weapons. Germany launches their weapons. France launches their weapons. UK launches their weapons.

Who wins in that exchange? China and India.

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Mang027 t1_j601ge0 wrote

This nation elected an orange buffoon with no credentials, they're incapable of processing a nuclear threat.

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apathetic_revolution t1_j604c93 wrote

I've been having a rough couple of years and could go for some nuclear annihilation.

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AnimZero t1_j60dfbv wrote

The purpose of it these days is to bring to attention the rising dangers of nuclear war, rampant climate change, and biological threats. At 90 seconds to midnight, they think shit's pretty fucked. I personally agree with the notion that shit's pretty fucked right now. While their messaging and reporting is important, the way they make their announcement with seemingly no followup could be improved.

If shit gets de-fuckified, they'll typically move the clock back.

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Dizzlean t1_j60lku5 wrote

1968 was a very turbulent year in the US and you had worse pollution and a heightened Cold War going on in the background.

The Doomsday Clock was set at 17 minutes then.

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NewMexicoJoe t1_j6016mw wrote

I've lived through 5 decades of the proverbial grey bearded man with a sandwich board shouting "The End of the World is Nigh." In that time, these numerous prophecies with dates prior to today have all proven false. It must be part of our human condition to fear and embrace end times, and invent stories about how to predict them.

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bluemagic124 t1_j62g0f7 wrote

Really fake? Or so fake it’s real? You decide! On this very special choose-your-own-adventure episode of Dragonball Z!

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Lazy_Stranger2328 t1_j603epe wrote

It's stupid. It's been at that point for years now. It's not an accurate doomsday clock, it's just another way for people to fearmonger and sell news articles.

Nobody is doing anything about it except spreading panic. Idgaf what it says it carries no meaning whatsoever.

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durgadas t1_j60vb0m wrote

FUCK.

As a child of the 1980s and Perpetual Nuclear Existential Terror, it feels somehow WORSE now, and I suppose this clock metaphor is an apt one for how fucking suicidal we are as a species.

FUCK.

Worse, I know we'll keep "electing" and putting narcissistic psychopaths in charge of everything until our ability to live on this planet is used up. Naturally, only narcissistic psychopaths will survive the consequence of their actions.

FUCK!

Also, it's annoying this question is posed as yet another stupid false duality we're entirely too beholden to now. This kind of divisive framing is very much the cause of the problem this clock metaphor is intended to illustrate.

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Ludwik2006 OP t1_j61buy2 wrote

>Worse, I know we'll keep "e

i read 3 times fukc fuck fukc and so it will be if i have 90 seconds left i will fuck lol back in the times nuclear now again, but covid kill more people than any nuclear weapons so far so i am not afraid of nuclear terror nor viruses but i am scared of people humans that can can change the precent tense with in 90 seconds

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Herknificent t1_j60y3cf wrote

It’s real. The threat of nuclear war is real. But what can I do about it? People in much higher positions than I make those decisions for all of us.

I work a shit job for shit pay. No wife, no gf, no prospects of that happening either. My favorite dog just died around Thanksgiving. I have a medical condition that I have to take medicine every day for or I’ll eventually die. Quite honestly if the bombs dropped it’d just end this whole dog and pony show much quicker.

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Ludwik2006 OP t1_j61b40e wrote

thank you for your honesty: me human here reading a real deep down to earth comment of expression is very much appreciated "no fake bullshit" thank you.... really muchas gracias por ser humano and not a robot

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yaykarin t1_j611lcs wrote

It's real - in that - there is a doomsday clock. It exists and yes this year it is the closest it's ever been to "doomsday" at 90 seconds, but ultimately it's an entirely arbitrary system.

It could tick down to 1 second to Doomsday and stay there in perpetuity. Meaningless. If it started in 1947 and has bounced back and forth with its predictions ever since - it is entirely meaningless.

Frankly I think if the global pandemic didn't somehow set it to closest to doomsday ever I don't understand how it is now.

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404photo t1_j619env wrote

Again? I have delt with this bullshit all my life. Nothing like scaring the shit out of kindergarteners teaching them to not look at the blast flash and to duck under the desks. Everything has these sorts moving it forward and backwards.

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Ludwik2006 OP t1_j619tf8 wrote

its like history repeating selfishly the young generation

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Horror_Scene4747 t1_j621jq3 wrote

tick tick tick

If you're gonna die, die with your boots on.

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k-yn t1_j62ff8v wrote

fake , in 90 days my life will be as screwed up as it is now

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archimedes420420 t1_j63lld1 wrote

Its extremely fake. Stupid attempt to try and get the public to care but it just ends up as cheap fear porn

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MyInterThoughts t1_j602474 wrote

Its fake as fuck. I can put up a doomsday clock and it will just as valid as theirs.

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SoyIsMurder t1_j602l9i wrote

"Is the doomsday clock real"?

waits 90 seconds

"Whew. I guess it's just symbolic. Had me worried there."

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Dracula-2020 t1_j603ncm wrote

It’s stupid u go when the universe wants you to go

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HospitableBadger t1_j6041jd wrote

Well, real in that it exists. But fake in that it's completely arbitrary?

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ExecTankard t1_j60511d wrote

Relevant (Real vs Fake) depending on your mindset. You could view international tensions through a foreign investment mindset and have a different view of tensions. What’s 100% real is how you act towards any of it.

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PadyWinkulBlu t1_j605myx wrote

Can't wait for it to run down to 0, just to see what happens.

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Ronin22222 t1_j605vlw wrote

It's fear porn. Scared people are easily manipulated

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pab_guy t1_j605wel wrote

I mean, by definition it's "fake". There is no way to calculate or measure ETA of doomsday, if you could even define it adequately (which I suspect you cannot).

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Jamoncorona t1_j606ud8 wrote

If shit goes to hell, it's just going to be 15 minutes of sheer panic, with nothing to do about it or change it. Why worry your entire live about it? I personally take steps for all the things that can make a small but meaningful change in my life and people around me (carbon emission and footprint wise). If a large enough number of us do that, then for sure there's a palpable benefit to all. but lie awake at night for fear that the powers to be are going to nuke the world? if it happens, it's gonna happen, hemming and hawing or not. Like Red said "get busy living or get busy dying".

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Gordon_Explosion t1_j608ufe wrote

GenX kids chuckle at that. Wake us up at 5 seconds to midnight.

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Garoxxar t1_j609bem wrote

So I always thought the Doomsday clock was just an estimate to how long it would take to end the world. So now that it's 90 seconds, it'd only take about 90 seconds for the world to be a barren, glassed out husk.

Either way, the clock is no real indicator of any kind of catastrophe.

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Weinerslingshot t1_j60bsc1 wrote

It's an idea so of you don't agree it is fake. If you do believe then it is real.

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skovall t1_j60eulg wrote

I hope the politicians are paying attention to that and going "oh shit" we better do something.

I hope those are some very very VERY long seconds.

So much of my life is watching that damned clock hand go back and forth. Back dammit back! I want to be able to see ALL the Avatar films some day!

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rice-krispy316 t1_j60i0iq wrote

The world is going to end when the polars shift, should be the next mass extinction unless an all out nuclear war kills everything

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coldneuron t1_j60i6ew wrote

Any clock that’s been stuck five minutes to midnight for decades needs to get tossed out.

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Adubya76 t1_j60iuo3 wrote

I took it as a real threat by those that advertised it.

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porknwings t1_j60j31z wrote

I'm diabetic and I'm still gonna eat that ice cream

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I_AM_ACURA_LEGEND t1_j60mjzz wrote

It’s a group of peoples subjective opinion. Can’t put more stock in it than that

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MonkeyWithTheMohawk t1_j60ec8m wrote

World ends when I die. I have God inside of me. Elon Musk enslaved me as his monkey with "a slight dark mohawk".

Good vs Evil is me vs Elon Musk. It's a robbery of my life which ends up being Elon Musk and Neuralink doing all they can to cover up my existence and turning the world into Hell on Earth if I can't get help.

http://www.goodvsevil.online/good/

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