>>214057086
After the October crisis very few boomers took nuclear war seriously. The Soviets proved they weren't mad dogs itching to annihilate the west and could be negotiated with and there was no need for the west to panic because the Soviets were relatively isolated and incompetent. The boomers were too busy living in the most prosperous economic era that would ever exist in history and indulging in hedonism. The 1990s were the final nail in the coffin in western economies as corporations totally deindustrialized us and the decades of boomer can kicking and wild speculation started to hit us rapid fire. The oligarchs thought 9/11 was going to be their victory lap, they genuinely believed they had no global rivals left except for Iran (which they had just been giving license to annihilate) and that China and Russia would never rise and the future was going to be the world chopped up into a deracinated cultureless mass of consoomers endlessly shifting through waxing and waning economic zones while western oligarchs ruled over it all from mansions on Mars.
By the way, last year we came closer to a serious nuclear exchange than we ever had in human history and the US continues to try to goad the Russians into launching missiles. We now have a dying empire actively trying to coax nuclear armed powers into WW3. The Cold War nuke threat was the result of mistakes and not understanding other nations red lines, which got corrected and incorporated into geopolitical strats. Now we're actively belligerent toward nuclear armed states and our leaders WANT missile strikes.
It's way worse nowadays, which is why it feels like culture has stagnated so hard, because everyone at least subconsciously recognizes we're in a dark era with no visible light at the end of the tunnel.
