I would consider myself a skeptic of the notion that the US will engage in a hot war with China anytime soon. But I'd still say it's a non-zero chance - high enough that I think it's something we should all think about. Because if the US does engage in a hot war, I'm 100% the US military will absolutely get their ass handed to them on the battlefield.

So if a hot war happens, the US will eventually be faced with a choice: either accept the biggest military humiliation the country has ever experienced (by far), or start firing off the nukes. Given where we're at today, I feel pretty strongly that American exceptionalism, worship of civic religion, and Americans' lack of experience with death and devastation means it won't be hard for the ruling class to stir up pro-nuke sentiment. Even if it means there's a real chance that China fires off nukes that hit the US.

So I think one thing we need to do (if you're a US American or Australian) is remind people that nuclear war is beyond horrific. This video I think covers this all pretty well. But I also have to give a massive content warning, as naturally the content is gruesome and disturbing.

We also need to really destroy these myths US Americans hold about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I like how Ethan said on the Proles pod about nuclear war:

So, we have to retell this story of "they dropped the bomb to save lives", because it's really frightening to grasp the idea that the government and the military and the powers that be that govern our lives that are currently in charge of everything would sacrifice so many innocent lives. And not just kill people, just do some of the most horrific things that have happened to human beings. They would do that for a political bargaining chip. They wouldn't do that to end the war, they were doing it to strongarm a country they thought they'd be fighting soon.