[MicroBerto]

For those of you who don't believe a single thing we're being told about this situation -- including this screenshot -- just know that you're not alone.

You don't need to question the narrative publicly like some of us do, but it's always good to keep an open mind about everything we're told, and sadly, that means considering the possibility that there have been more lies than truths told since Saturday.

Hopefully someday we'll get the real story, but I have a very hard time believing that this is it.

[Cthulhu_]

Are you suggesting that there may have been a real attack but it's being kept quiet (by idk, the Deep State, lizard people, round-earth conspiracists, etc?)

[MicroBerto]

Not at all, and I take offense to what you are suggesting - that anyone who questions the 'official' story automatically believes in lizard people or whatnot.

I find it sad that people have been conditioned to lump anyone who questions such a messed up narrative in with nonsense like that.

Let's not act as if we've never been lied to before. We have reached a very low point in both credibility and transparency, and just because I have serious doubts about this story doesn't mean I'm a flat earther or whatever else you're insinuating. Let's be mature here.

[mulmen]

You offer no reason to doubt the official story though. If you don't present us with new information you're either pointing out the obvious or advocating nonsense.

[tomjen3]

Clearly not. He is suggesting that the alert was not send in error, but that requires no more than somebody clicking it and further that he doesn't trust the government (in would call anything else imprudent).

I can see a bunch of reasons for clicking that link, from just for fun to wanting more money to fix the UI to the more sinister of wanting to keep the populous scared so that they are more likely to support a war in the future.

No reason to bring lizard people into this.

[Blazespinnaker]

Or that it was done for political purposes.

[jmull]

It seems very likely to me this situation is exactly what it appears to be: a false alarm triggered by an old, underfunded, patch-upon-patch alert system. Initially very scary, then very embarrassing, everyone involved is trying to cover their asses, so you see a lot of spin.

The lack of an actual ballistic missile or missile defense response should really settle the question, IMO.

[mulmen]

I'm not sure how to generalize this advice without becoming a paranoid conspiracy theorist. If we maintain an "open mind" about everything we are told and the "real story" comes out later how do we know it is real?

If we are able to identify the later story as real that means we have some other mechanism for determining truthfulness which could be applied to the current information.

Do you have any reason to believe we have been lied to? Can you point to any sources? Your vague statements suggest you know something but are unwilling to reveal it. That is a red flag for me.

[Chaebixi]

This isn't the first time a scary EBS message was mistakenly sent out (there was a famous incident in 1971), and it probably won't be the last time. I see no reason to doubt that it was a UX failure.