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Forget Hashtag Activism: a Millennial's Guide To Nuclear Weapons Realism
Lasrick writes: Matthew Costlow is frustrated with his generation's tendency of "hashtag activism" and would like Millennials instead to get real on the issue of nuclear weapons. He writes: "Allow me to suggest a radical new mindset for my generation as it confronts the issues of nuclear disarmament, Russian and Chinese aggression, and nuclear proliferation: extreme humility. Instead of 'boldly' proclaiming the need to raise awareness, let's utilize our generation's greatest asset—access to data—and truly understand the issues before trying to solve anything. Instead of proposing 'fresh ideas' for their own sake, let's recognize that we are not the first generation to deal with these issues and probably will not be the last. Instead of studiously avoiding specifics or hard choices, let's face a messy reality and not simplify an increasingly complex world to bumper-sticker activism."
That will help.
Great Idea! +1 Like
#nomorehashtags
They're the only country with a history of using the bomb (not once, but twice). Am I missing something?
The Chinese leadership seem alot more disciplined, analytical and sane when you look at the recent history of American leadership.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt05...
The 'old folk' have know that for years.
is to "nuke them from space" Ha Ha!!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Data driven politics has a name. No need to reinvent it. Unfortunately, it's always struggled to get a strong following.
-Chris
Get real. As long as there are governments like Russia, China, Iran who would attempt to take over the world if there were not any powers to oppose them, the world will always need nukes.
As a member of the Millenial generation, I find Matthew Costlow's point of view to be shortsighted and dim witted.
Lastly, my generation has a nasty habit of encountering a problem and insisting that we do something about it. If you press us for specifics, you only hear crickets. So when we are confronted with the problem of, say, nuclear crises, a Millennial response goes something like this: “If humanity is ever to be free from the threat of nuclear catastrophe, people need to stand up and demand further action on nuclear reductions from their representatives.” What specific actions would free humanity from the threat of nuclear catastrophe? Why were these actions not taken earlier? How would unilateral nuclear reductions enhance our security? Crickets
* What specific actions would free humanity from the threat of nuclear catastrophe?
1) nuclear disarmament is a start.
2) advancing our nuclear technology to use thorium would eat up nuclear waste and not produce plutonium.
* Why were these actions not taken earlier?
1) nuclear disarmament has been going on for a LONG time!
2) it will take time and money to fully develop and the public has been conditioned to be terrified of nuclear anything.
3) politics
* How would unilateral nuclear reductions enhance our security?
It would ensure that these dangerous weapons are not used on humans.
So... can we do those or are you going to just bitch about other Millenials on the internet?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
As near as I can tell, hashtag activism occurs in cyberspace. REAL activism occurs in meatspace. My advice to millennial "activists"? Step away from the internet and do something real.
(don't do it on my lawn)
An article and summary using buzzwords and hashtag activism to suggest people should stop using buzzwords and hashtag activism about nuclear issues - just to make the OP feel like they did something more than using buzzwords and hashtag activism.
P.S. Hashtag activism.
Limited nuclear attacks in a number of spots around the Earth are now assured, probably in five years or so.
I look forward to the Buzzfeed articles explaining how EMP works are why half a continent has no working electronics - or I would if SF weren't the primary target.
Good luck everyone! And don't forget to wrap at least one backup hard drive in aluminum foil.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
On the internet no one can tell you're a Millennial, or from any other group, for that matter. I voted this article down as stupid, but it got through anyway. I'm sorry, but I'm not part of the echo chamber that âoeboldlyâ proclaims the need to raise awareness, nor do I assume such an echo chamber contains only Millennials.
Guess what, those old people milling about in Congress and running around Iowa trying to become President, when they were young they didn't trust anyone over 30. They were the generation of Rock N Roll and psychedelic drugs. They were so special that they were going to change the world forever and usher in a new utopian age.
Now they're just old fogeys and the world still has war and poverty and nuclear weapons.
You want radical and "messy"? Eliminate healthcare. Youth want a big, bright, collective future. Older generations like the status quo, like to believe the world is their's to play like an RTS. Let the old, infirm generations perish and you'll eliminate most of the worlds despots and imperialists.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Eventually someone is going to start selling nukes out of their mom's basement.
Studying the history, reading and evaluating the various pundits, activists, experts and talking heads output is hard. Sure; any one of normal intelligence and education should be able (and willing) to do this, but it is human nature to take the easy way out if possible. How many people, even in political organizations, really pay attention to what the other guy is saying, attempt to understand what is being said and why?
It is the real world equivalent of reading all the foot notes and reading all the citations mentioned in the bibliography. It's tedious and time consuming, even people whose job it is to actually do all of that due diligence stuff tend to skimp and cut corners if they can. Only Russell's teapot knows how many student essays and theses, how many scientific papers, how many campaign and floor speeches reference totally bogus or inapplicable bullshit, counting on the audience to not bother following up on them. I am convinced however, that it is a large number.
This is just human nature, and I've come to simply accept it for what it is. So; rather than ranting on about how people should be doing X or Y, I try to ask myself Why don't> people do X or Y, How can I make X or Y the more desirable/rewarding choice than what the people are already doing?
Why don't more people do this? Obviously because doing that is also hard compared to just ranting about what people should be doing. Frankly; I consider myself a smart person, but I haven't been clever enough to figure out a way to make active, diligent participation in the democratic process more desirable/rewarding than just sitting at home complaining about the politicians.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
Really what kind of idiot wants to dismantle a system that has kept the world peaceful for 70 years.
Megadeth - (may all your nuclear weapons) Rust In Peace
Carthage was pretty peaceful after Rome was done with it.
He writes: "Allow me to suggest a radical new mindset for my generation...blah, blah, blah....Instead of proposing 'fresh ideas' for their own sake...
The fresh idea he's proposing is to stop proposing fresh ideas. I stopped reading there.
Did he at some point think that writing an article whining about things is exactly what he is whining about? Not to be rude, but who is this guy and why should we care? I mean the tubes are filled with people complaining about activists, etc. If I write a blog post whining about his take on it, will the editors share it?
What country are you from so we can stop sending all aid to you?
What the fuck is this, every day I have to read some bullshit fearmongering article here about so called Chinese or Russian aggression. How are the Chinese aggressive? Fuck you, slashdot fuck you and your fucking US bullshit.
Millenial is completely wrong, and I RTFA and verified that they in fact spelled it correctly there, so what was written here wasn't copy/pasted. Whoever wrote this intentionally mispelled it. WTF Slashdot
The following irony scares the crap out of me:
Hollywood has exaggerated every explosion or fireball effect that they have ever tried to use in an action film to the point it no longer resembles reality. The opposite is true with every nuclear weapon that Hollywood has ever tried to use in a film.
My limited knowledge of movies confessed, I can only think of two movies that are even close: Godzilla 1998 has a fantastic opening sequence of nuclear tests, however their accuracy is only there because the footage is of real American nuclear tests. The other movie, where the effects were surprisingly well captured, was (don't laugh) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, though the realistic effects of the blast were completely undone in my mind when Indy's lead lined refrigerator was thrown several miles to safety when it should have been crushed like a tin can by the compression force of the shockwave. Don't get me started on the 4MT bomb that was detonated a full minute (by hovercraft velocity mind you) off of Gotham's coast in the latest batman. The heat damage from that would have melted glass and given 3rd degree burns to anyone exposing bare skin only seconds before the shockwave would have leveled most skyscrapers. Instead, Hollywood gave us a mushroom cloud clipart in the distance that could at best rival Hiroshima (keep in mind a yield difference factor of 200).
This lack of appreciation for the true power of nuclear weapons is a huge problem with any real effort in nuclear disarmament or non-proliferation. I'm not sure if this is a problem of public ignorance, or if the scale shear scale of the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons is beyond the grasp of most humans. I would guess a combination of both. My recommendation to anyone who wants to get a true feel for their power is to watch the documentary titled 'Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie'.
I would actually like to see a live action movie where effort is made into the accuracy of the effects of nuclear weapons. Why do people fear the radiation released by nuclear blasts far more than the damn blast itself? If you are caught in a nuclear blast, there's at least 5 likely causes of death that I can think of that would kill you long before the effects of any radioactive fallout are even noticed.
rant over
the full blown "crap your pants" nuclear drills some of the generations before got. While "terrorist" may actually use "a" bomb (as in once) , I sort of think of things right now like the landradd in Dune, any nation that actually uses a nuke would probably risk complete annihilation by the rest of the nations in the world.
So the WWII generation got to drop nukes on a couple of cities and none have done so since.
I'm envious. Why can't our generation also have the thrill of vaporizing a city or two? We could up the record to three, or even three hundred. That would show them who's the greatest generation.
Think of the excitement! Will we be next?!!
Think of the guilt! Why, O why, did we do such a terrible thing?
If you know a better way of making more virgins, I'd like to hear it.
This guy wants get above the shortcomings and myopia of his generation, but cant see past his own blindness and brainwashing. Chinese agression? Please.
The difference between an american and chinese as it relates to their media and propaganda? The chinese knows he has shades on, while the american doesnt know he is blind.
Mao certainly did intend to kill everyone and anyone who questioned his leadership in any way
Mao Ze Dong certainly ain't an angel, but one can certainly state the same about Bush/Cheney on Iraq, Hollander on Libya, or Obama on Syria
Try not throwing too many rocks around while living inside a glass house
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
A radical new mindset could start with rejection of propaganda about "Russian and Chinese aggression." Access to information isn't really much of an asset... might even be a liability, when so much of it is controlled by so few people.
Anything that claims 'Russian and Chinese aggression' is clearly propaganda. Let's remind ourselves who is expanding eastwards, who is bombing other countries, who is blackmailing other countries. That would be the US regime. Clearly an article paid for by the US regime.
Studying the history, reading and evaluating the various ... experts.... output is hard.
It's also really, really fun, once you get the hang of it.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
full pre-emptive nuclear strike against any nation with nuclear triad capabilities will only do one thing effectively: get 100's of millions or billions of human beings killed
Do you know that by 2100 the projected human population on this planet might hit 12 to 13 Billion?
A wholesale purging / thinning of the burgeoning human population _before_ it explodes further might turn out to be a Good Thing[im]
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
What do we want!
Evidence-based policy making!
When do we want it!
After a thorough examination of all the available data!
How about the fucker wakes up to the dollar^w economic imperialism and constant interventions and meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.
Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity, sucker!
You're right dude! it is all the dollar's fault.. I for one am emptying my wallet into my barbecue grill right now and setting all of those evil bastards on fire.. they won't be bombing any innocent virgins any more.
#IAmASaint
It's the politicians telling me that government [policy] is evil, greed is the answer, rich people deserve more riches, prison parolees molesting me and my luggage provides salvation, even voting [for him] is worthless.
All I know is: It doesn't matter who is in charge, somebody else is making millions while I'm struggling to pay the cost of modern living.
It all boils down to this: Most people are greedy idiots. Nobody wants to put in the work and time to solve problems that wouldn't exist if people weren't greedy idiots. The few people who do anyway eventually find that solving these problems mostly helps greedy idiots, so they're actually creating more problems instead of solving them. That's why activism is a thing for young people.
I saw "Russian and Chinese aggression". He's a successully brainwashed American who believes and perpetuates the notion that the whole world is the enemy, all while his own country has been killing people in other countries for 70 years, people who have never set foot on American soil, and most of whom have never even left the borders of their own country. Only his brainwashed peers could take him seriously.
Because that'll stop nutjob regimes like North Korea, or a bunch of terrorists from using nukes to wipe out people.
Right?
How the fuck are people nowadays STILL this naive? (I'd use "fucking moronic", but I'm trying to be nice.)
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Are you really *that* desperate for articles, Slashdot, that you're pushing political flamebait? Or are you just so determined to push a political agenda you're willing to ignore the intent of the site as a whole? Go back to posting tech news (not political news with some very minor tech association like "using data") and stop with the political bulls***.
This is, bar none, the best post of this entire thread, and also what I've observed among my more "progressive" friends.
It's easy to latch onto what is the "good" thought of the moment. But too often the thought that deviates even slightly from the "good" thought is dismissed because if you don't follow the "good" thought to the letter, it means you've missed the narrow view of correctness that people "should" have.
Me, I don't try to persuade people who otherwise don't agree with me to think a certain way, as vociferous as I can be on these boards, because I know what kind of push-back I'm going to get. I merely offer my viewpoint and not get hurt that not everyone is going to like what I have to say, or for that matter, me.
Of course, the thing I always swing around back to when my "progressive" friends always say things like, "oh, well the government needs to stop spending money on defense and start spending it on $my_pet_cause" is "that's cute, but until you explain exactly how $my_pet_cause becomes more profitable than defense, money will be spent on defense".
And to no one's surprise, those same people can't seem to generate an answer. It never occurs to them that the reward they desire (the "good" or "right" thing) is not the one that someone else would choose, or at least choose for the same reasons. And yet they still complain about how selfish and corrupt politicians are.
To your credit, OP, at least you're aware that while complaining doesn't get the job done, you're not given to the kind of naivete as others might have.
-LaurenC
You're exactly the person OP speaks of in his very first sentence. Smart.
Bombing for peace works too. It's amazing how peaceful it is after all of your enemies are dead (so I've been told).
If you know a better way of making more virgins, I'd like to hear it.
take off the condom and you'll make more virgins..eventually
Drown in bloody intestines it is, you cowards!
Get kids interested into /.
Checking up on these things is also time-consuming. I've run down references before, and found they didn't say anything like what some people claimed, and it's been fun, but I can't do it for everything.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
80% of German casualties were against the USSR. And they were the ones that made it to Berlin. Once Stalin stopped interfering and let the Generals run the war, either Germany would have lost, or would have had to withdraw from all other fronts anyway and didn't have the resources for a sustained war against Russia, and would have lost (surrendered or negotiated a truce). The Allies just shortened it (not a small accomplishment though).
One issue with the US is that we're the world's superpower. If we make a bad decision, and people suffer, other people blame us. If we make a good decision, and people suffer, same thing. We've made our share of stupid and/or completely self-centered decisions, of course, but so do other countries.
I've read enough of the WWI and pre-WWI period to know that Imperial Germany had a worse double standard. The German alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary was natural and defensive, while the later French alliance with Russia was obviously intended to invade Germany and break it into smaller countries. All major powers have this problem, but rarely as bad as Germany back then.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Corporations don't want cheap commodities.
Your whole analysis is flawed. Corporations want commodities and other resources that they control. The higher the price the better, because they can lay on the same percentage overhead and make more money.
They want fat government military-industrial contracts. They want crony-capitalism favorable legislation, passed while the populace is distracted by corrupt wars of choice. They want compliant, slightly scared sheep for a population - sheep that buy as much as they can afford and more to dull the existential angst created by media bullshit about 'omigod the terrirists are killing us all!'
War is a racket. Read some fucking alternative history for christ's or fsm's or your own sake.
That's why you just skip the pundits, activists, and talking heads by default.
Stick with history and experts, and you'll have better results.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Why do people keep using that word?
In a previous life I worked on the SIOP and helped evaluate various (mostly counterforce) strategies. I highly recommend the books, Prisoners Dilemma (Poundstone) and Command and Control (Schlosser, don't get sidetracked by the Damascus incident story). If you have not read these sources, even if you worked on strategy and tactics at SAC (like I did), even if you taught Strategic and Tactical Sciences at the Air Force Institute of Technology (like I did), you are probably not as informed as you should be on these topics. I certainly was not then, but with maturation comes some ability to see the past for what it was.
"There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.
Who's the experts? I frequently can't know that without research.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Oh come on, it's usually not that hard. Start by turning off the TV and heading to the library.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And it only takes 2 morons to silence what should be apparent to any clear thinker.
You'd think they'd at least be able to explain what they object to, but again, that would require the ability to express a position clearly or persuasively.
What, they didn't replace all your greenbacks with binary on a chip yet?
full pre-emptive nuclear strike against any nation with nuclear triad capabilities will only do one thing effectively: get 100's of millions or billions of human beings killed
Do you know that by 2100 the projected human population on this planet might hit 12 to 13 Billion?
A wholesale purging / thinning of the burgeoning human population _before_ it explodes further might turn out to be a Good Thing[im]
And the purging will be in the richest, most technologically advanced countries. You'll be left with palces like Somalia and some lost tribes of the Amazon inheriting the world.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
> Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity, sucker!
As long as three babies come around you increase the number of virgins.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
In other words, research. Just what I said.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
If you're that lazy, think of the topic, head to Wikipedia, and look at the references. That will give you the start of a clue.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."