this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
174 points (97.8% liked)

Asklemmy

44152 readers
1980 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Some news that would be completely mundane today but scary or shocking in the past.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MudMan@kbin.social 110 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

So in this scenario you're back in 1923?

I'm pretty sure it'd be anything including the words "World War II".

Bonus points if it also includes a date.

[–] Susaga@ttrpg.network 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You might be able to streamline the process by saying "fears of World War III" and letting them fill in the gaps themselves.

[–] rbos@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I might find that reassuring in 1923, if the world makes it a full 100 years with only one global scale war. It's a great run by historic standards.

[–] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 year ago

Not really. Global Scale Wars were a unique thing back then. The Great War, the war to end all wars, was thought (hoped!) to be the only one of its kind. They had a lot of conflicts between major powers, but at least for the west, 17 million deaths excluding the spanish flu epidemic was a massive outlier.

Even the Mexican Revolution, listed on Wikipedia with an upper estimate of 3.5 million, wasn't a quarter of that, and it wasn't global. The last thing in the west that came (somewhat) close was the Napoleonic Wars with an upper estimate of 7 million, a hundred years earlier. China has had several massive death counts in various wars and rebellions, but that won't have been very present to the average western civilian.

WW1 brought with it a slew of new developments in military technology and capability for destruction. For the world to have not just one, but potentially two conflicts considered at least on par with The Great War would be very concerning.

[–] Exec@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We should start talking about World War IV then

[–] abclop99@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. World War V will be fought with crossbows, World War VI will be lasers, and World War VII will be blowguns. I don't know about World Wars VIII through XI. World War XII will use the same weapons as III, but will be fought entirely within underground tunnels. World War XIV willβ€”Hey, come back! I have a whole list!

β€”Albert Einstein

[–] raubarno@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. ~ Albert Einstein

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Yeah, like in that Doctor Who special where they tell the WW1 soldier "Now let's get you back to your first world war" and he goes "FIRST world war?!".

[–] littlewonder@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wasn't it known as the Great War until after WW2?

And yes, I am fun at parties.

[–] MudMan@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am assuming they'd put two and two together.

On account of the number 2, and how all their male relatives have been dead for less than ten years, that stuff is probably pretty top of mind.

Especially if they have boys aged below 10 in the family

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Few people would be surprised by it happening. They hoped it wouldn't be for many decades but it was just known as the way future wars would go.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

future telling is kind of a lame answer