doomsday rant
When I was a kid, we all knew how the world was going to end. The Sovs would attack the Fulda Gap probably, we of course would dispatch hundreds of BMPs, BTRs and T74s with our way better M1s, Sov tactical doctrine was more apt to set off nukes and send troops through the resulting opening, and that’d start off a larger exchange. We lived off base but close enough I would be dust early on. Btw, you notice how the Soviets, not us, were always phrased as the side which would start it.
doomsday rant
This despite how our President was this ancient asshole already proven just FINE with having thousands of deaths on his hands. Anyway.
Now I’m old and like most of what I was told as a kid, that was total bullshit. Instead extinction looms due to stuff well underway in the 80s. We have our choice of apocalypses, none of which THE SAME FUCKING PEOPLE who were in charge in the 80s acknowledge cause it’s money for the cronies. I have no clue how survival isn’t viewed as valuable, but.
doomsday rant
@Leucrotta Once it’s a 5y target, *then* we’ll see action - way too late to avoid very bad times for not-us, but maybe enough to sort of cope, at huge cost in every sense.
Hell, there’s still only grudging acceptance of the whole scenario with the Dems, and precious little action.
re: doomsday rant
@porsupah see also "all the Dems would need to do is have 2-4 more progressive agenda items, and the populace would view them as saviors, but naw, they won't."
re: doomsday rant
@Leucrotta Pretty much. =:P Even the few timid "oh, how about Medicare for all?" initial proclamations all seem to've been walked back.
Still, early days. If the likes of MoveOn can help mobilise people into contacting their preferred candidates to push home the point that *yes*, actually, single payer is feasible and affordable, I suspect many of them /would/ take notice.
re: doomsday rant
@porsupah Seriously I think part of why the enemy has managed to be successful is that they actually have an agenda to push, they're active rather than reactive. And I think it's because the Dems are what the Republicans used to be; they're just fine with millions of deaths and the end of humanity in sight, as long as their corporate donors keep it comin'.
doomsday rant
@Leucrotta It didn't hang over my head as much, but I grew up in a town which has a national laboratory. It does high energy physics, lasers, and supercomputing--and also helped run numbers for nuclear bomb design.
Once I was aware of the cold war, I knew it was likely to be a target, if the nukes starting dropping.
Of course now I'm in Seattle, and about 1/4th of the nation's entire nuclear arsenal is at a base 20 miles away. :-/
doomsday rant
@emanate in retrospect people make money from upgrading, selling and dismantling nukes, not from an actual war. So as an apocalypse it’s a lot less likely than peak oil, catastrophic climate change, the extinction of insects, whatever is about rich fucks making bank.
Of course I still do feel there’s some danger of 45 setting off a nuke since that’s the sort of BIG MAN MAKING TOUGH DECISIONS that appeals to his ego and cultists.
doomsday rant
@Leucrotta Yeah, there's definitely that worry, too. :-/
doomsday rant
I again reiterate that we are capitalists the same way the Sovs were communist (what sort of commies ban trade unions?); we talk a lot, but in practice we don’t care about market growth, consumer confidence, long term growth, agriculture/fisheries/tourism and more.
Back on topic, I find that I’m cranky not just that I am facing my species’ and society’s end in my lifetime, but that I was consistently lied to, and again, that it’s basically the same damn people.