[CodeMage]

Yep, reading the HN comments on this one is surreal. I'd like to believe people are posturing and trying to convince themselves there's nothing to worry about, but I'm afraid that they're actually not worried. Reminds me of a comment [1] that I read the other day:

My generation has not grown to fear the bombs as the previous generation did. When someone of my generation is behind the buttons, I wonder if somewhere in the back of their minds there isn't a part of them that says 'perhaps in this and this situation it'd be okay to press the big red button?'.

I think the horror that war/these weapons cause will slowly drift from collective memory in mainstream western society. The warnings of the previous generation will be an endorsement of the destructive power of these weapons, instead of a deterrent of their usage.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16206823

[kbenson]

There's some of that, but there's also what I think are very valid points about this being almost entirely an appeal to emotion with very little information imparted. Are we actually 20% more likely to have a nuclear war? Who decides this, and is it based on data, or their own emotional state?

Is this just a way for some people to broadcast their current level of fear that's caught on with the wider public?