I fear that nuclear war could be happening soon…
Global tensions seem to be rising, and superpowers are allowed to be more and more reckless. It feels like the third world war is imminent, a nuclear war which would end everything.
I am so scared… I am so paralyzed to do anything now. Am I overreacting? Also, what should I be doing?
Get involved and build resilience in your local community. It’s super beneficial for your mental health, social health and you can do something tangible that does make a difference. This resilience will help build and maintain and more importantly sustain the structural and social support for things like general strikes. It’s quite literally grounding in practice and people always need to eat. It’s a place to meet people that also care.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240105073255/https://effectiveactivist.com/zine/
It is only in the oppressor’s benefit to do otherwise. Remember these are the same people causing both issues.
Edit: Also check out !zines@slrpnk.net for inspiration. :)
This article may help: https://positivepsychology.com/circles-of-influence/
And a graphic that sums it up:
I’m just another internet rando, but looking at the same events everyone else is, I do think the masses will turn this around through solidarity. I believe: It will be before any nukes are used. It will be after long lasting climate change. But it will prevent the downfall of humanity. There will be human and natural healing. Most people will be okay.
What do I have power over to make this happen? Mostly numerous, small, interpersonal interactions.
Yeah, the heightened potential for nuclear annihilation is terrifying but there’s frankly nothing you can do to survive it. Even if you somehow lived though the bombings, there’s no corner of the globe where starvation nor irradiation would not reach. The Earth would be uninhabitable and death would be certain for most land animals.
It’s a tragic way to die and for the human race to cease to be. But it’s only death and that’s certain to happen one way or another. There are countless other ways you could die that are either within or beyond your control. Many are far more likely to happen than nuclear war. Do you fret about being killed in an accident every time you step into a car?
I know it’s a lot easier said than done but try to live in the now rather than the future. Plan for tomorrow but recognize that, unlike the present, the future is not guaranteed. Don’t take the present for granted, go do things that bring you fulfillment now because ultimately that is the only time that you have control over.
I disagree. Someone who really prepares by storing food, having a place underground to survive for a period, and takes sufficient precautions could live. It would be expensive and difficult to prepare, and even then may not work, but I don’t think it’s true that people can’t try to prepare at all.
It’s certainly plausible to survive the initial bombings by taking adequate shelter, you may even be able to stock up enough provisions to survive for several months. The problem is what follows.
Nuclear winter is hypothesized to change the climate to the point where growing food is impossible, potentially for several years. Any animals you can hunt before they eventually succumb to starvation will have been poisoned by the fallout, their meat contaminated.
The fallout will spread across the globe, making the air you breathe toxic, either by radiation poisoning or by any number of harmful construction materials such as asbestos which is now particleized and floating freely.
If by some miracle you do still cling to life by this point, you will either be completely alone or surrounded by people just as desperate to survive as you are. Only in fiction do either of those situations end well.
So in that situation you need beans and rice and water purification (filters) that last 3 years. It’s expensive, but not impossible. There are people who already have that stored, and most of those people are very smart and well-prepared.
The best way to cope with the news is to ignore it. There is no reason to read about and obsess over things you have no power to change. Focus on your own life and the people around you, learn mindfulness and deeply ponder the structure of trees, the intricate shapes of the clouds, whatever nature is around you, and breathe.
yeh I’ve been doing just this a lot as of late… and Lemmy tell ya, there’s a lot of natural beauty in his world, from clouds to the fractal shapes of plant life (ferns esp). best not to worry about impending doom and things you cannot change.
