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> God knows how distressing it was for those who watched it during the height of it. We aren't in that different a universe from the Cold War, unless someone's
by vkou 3y ago
> God knows how distressing it was for those who watched it during the height of it.
We aren't in that different a universe from the Cold War, unless someone's dismantled the thousands of nuclear weapons we point at eachother, and hasn't told me.
The worst thing about the Cold War ending is how everyone talks like the world has changed, yet it really hasn't.
- OliveMate 3y agoTheres definitely stockpiles of nuclear weapons out there, but they're a fraction of what they were 40 years ago, and really up until the last few years relations between the West and Russia have been less tense - Not to say there hasn't been friction from all the effort put into influencing politics in the West or assassination attempts on Western soil that have definitely soured things. For reference, the big cultural fear when I was young was terrorism and rogue states, and then around adulthood it was ISIS and the like. These things still exist, but the cultural focus here has shifted for a while.
- vkou 3y agoThey are a fraction of what they used to be, because they can be delivered with far more precision, and far less ability for interception than in the Cold War bomber era. It's no longer the decade of long-distance bombers running interceptor screens and anti-aircraft fire to deliver warheads directly to where they intend to bomb. It'll just be a series of bright re-entry streaks fanning out from an ICBM releasing it's cluster of warheads on your metro area. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-nuclear-vault-gallery-image-21-test-of-multiple-independently-retargetable-reentry-vehicles--385128205619589291/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-nuclear-vault-gallery-imag...