• SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        I don’t know the extent of it, but it’s been known since at least the Obama admin that US missile command is understaffed and has massive morale problems. Inspections have found vault doors propped open because they’ve been broken for months, many systems still rely on computers from the 1960s to function, random tests have a high failure rate which might be a coincidence or it might mean that the whole missile fleet is falling apart. It would be better for us and the whole world if we just dismantled the whole program before something tragic happens.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        The US hasn’t had the plutonium reserves necessary to maintain or replenish nuclear weapons since 1989. There’s only one uranium enrichment facility in the US and nearly their entire output is already booked for nuclear power.

        The basic design of nukes haven’t changed since the early 1960s. The only things new are guidance systems and how they can toggle yield before detonating. They’re also bigger

      • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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        8 months ago

        It may not be as bad as a worst case scenario predicts, but also, I really wouldn’t want to take that chance.

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          8 months ago

          Yeah. I remember reading that the knock-on effects like wildfires and cities burning would have very serious global consequences even if it was just, say, India and Pakistan lobbing a few nukes at each other. But I’m with you 100% about verifying the hypothesis. Even if the consequences aren’t “that bad” I’d rather not find out. Let’s keep the lid on the nuclear can of worms.

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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            8 months ago

            A “low level” nuclear exchange that “isn’t that bad” would also be terrifying because it would show nations that they can unleash “a few” nukes and it is survivable for them. Which will lead to “hot” nuclear escalation and a worst case scenario eventually.

    • star_wraith [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      I remember seeing a couple conclusions that some nuclear scientists came to recently:

      1.) 100 Hiroshima-sized nukes (the nuke dropped on Hiroshima was tiny compared to current nukes) going off could cause catastrophic climactic results across an area the size of a continent, i.e. a continent-wide nuclear winter that would potentially lead to hundreds of millions of deaths outside of lives lost to the immediate blast + fallout.

      2.) If the US and Russia both unleashed just 5% of their total nuclear stockpiles, you are definitely wiping out civilization and getting humans down to close to extinction levels.

      IIRC a lot of this is worse than previously understood because past models didn’t account for just how much dirt and debris are kicked up in nuclear blasts.

    • Beaver [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      It’s tough to know exactly, but it’s doesn’t cause much change in sunlight and temperature to cause mass crop failures. There are some US government estimates that the fine particulates from even a “limited” nuclear war would cause such an extensive collapse in agricultural output that you might see something like 90% of the human population starve just in the first year. Even if though that might not be a literally exctinction level event, it would be such an epochal society-altering event that there’s no sense in which a country would come out the other side as a “winner” even if they were completely untouched by the actual nuclear blasts or fallout.

      The redditors who are enjoying this little visual are watching themselves and everyone they know and love starving to death in the aftermath.

  • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    damn i saw this earlier and have finally gathered the motivation to purge all but a few subreddits from my feed

    of course it’s full of the usual “NATO can destroy russias entire nuclear arsanel with conventional strikes”, “the U.S. has secret anti-missile tech that can neutralize all incoming ICBMs”, aaaand everyone’s favorite: “RUSSIA HAS NO FUNCTIONAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS!” YAAAAAY

    this might be rube shit fed from up high and maaaybe not believed by those that control the button but given enough time (if it’s not already here) there will be those with launch authority that percolated up through the sludge that will 100% factually believe this shit and kill us all if they aren’t stopped eventually

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      they bought all the Ukraine propaganda while they were still paying attention to the war (in 2022) so they think Russia fights with shovels and has to take chips from washing machines for their missiles. They literally think Russia is incapable of launching nukes

  • whatup@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I’m gonna assume that the pro-nuclear Armageddon posts are mostly from bots and Eglin Air Force Base for my own sanity.

  • whatup@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    It’s kinda reassuring that most of the comments are calling out the post for being blatant, violent propaganda. Neckbeards are really leveling up.