I swear TO GAWD that sub was originally satire, but now it's full nominative determinism

  • jackal [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    If Hillary won the presidency, then the world would look like a nuclear wasteland because it would have been a nuclear wasteland.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've never trusted this. I'm not defending her, but I don't think she'd have been any different than any other ghouls who came before or after her. She would have probably tried to put a no-fly zone over Syria, tensions would have escalated with Russia further, and maybe Russia invades Ukraine a few years early. But I can't see it turning into a nuclear conflict with either Russia or Iran.

      The only major difference I can imagine would be Trump runs again in 2020 after coasting along for 4 years on a campaign of a stolen 2016, then he wins in 2020 with an election that mirrors our 2016

      What are the events that would lead to nuclear war?

      • jackal [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I'll admit I was being pretty flippant when I wrote this comment. But I'm thinking particularly about a difference between say Hillary and Trump is that Hillary is more of a hawk. It's hard to say what would happen because events are so contingent, but I think if you add even more US hawkishness to the e.g. the current events in Ukraine, then it's not outside the realm of possibility things could spiral out of control.

        Russia invading a few years early for example could have led to a totally different NATO calculus, maybe back then NATO would have estimated Russia is not ready for a war and went all in.

        • walletbaby [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Trump was the only US president in living memory not to start a new war.

          He even tried to end a couple, in Syria (why are we at war in Syria?), in Afghanistan and he tried to withdraw US troops from Germany to tremendous applause from the Germans.

      • walletbaby [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Remember just before the inauguration, when a US tank brigade was stationed in the territory closest to Moscow, Lithuania I think. That was Hillary's big stick. She was going to provoke the Russians into starting some shit and then hit them with the tanks. A rush of NATO would follow "they attacked us!"

        Instead, the troops just did some exercises and went home. These troop movements require months of planning, they weren't there as an accident. Don't forget absolutely everybody expected Hillary to win.

        The meme at the time was "we're through the looking glass here, Trump is president and Obama just sent tanks into Poland."

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      She absolutely would have gone to war against Iran. It was the only time Trump frustrated the war hawks.