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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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