People will probably not agree with me, but I think:

1. You are not overreacting, although AI sometimes tells me that risks of nuclear disaster aren’t that high and I’m over-estimating.

2. You can control things somewhat by preparing as much as you can to survive such a situation

But… preparing to try to survive nuclear war will require radical action possibly, especially if you live in a risky area that is more likely to be impacted.

What is preparation? It means getting the Potassium Iodine tablets, it means having food stored, it means having solar backups, ideally it means having a place where you can survive underground, and it means not living anywhere near a likely target. It requires major changes, expenses, and enduring hardship if you are wrong or right, but also feeling exasperated you spent money and wasted time if nothing happens.

I feel like there are two competing ways to look at this situation. 1) The elite control society, and they would not want to make society unlivable for them and their children, therefore nuclear war is an idea primarily to scare us and control us. The other option is 2) no one is steering the ship, the elite are greedy psychopaths and who knows what the hell will happen, and eventually conflict likely is going to happen and it will be ugly.

In World War 2, before Hitler came into power, some Jews in Europe were like “I’m worried about this situation, the political situation here is generally iffy, I’m getting the fuck out of here” and left and went to America… and then didn’t die as a result. Fear sometimes is what saves people, even if it seems crazy. I realize immigration to a new place is much harder in today’s world (especially to the USA, but in a global conflict, the USA probably wouldn’t be a great place to be).

Some advice about moving away from a major city may not be enough. Don’t be near a major city, military base, critical infrastructure… and then, that actually will only save you in a limited strike situation. In a worst case situation, everyone near the strikes is dead, and only people far far away survive (not near the countries in conflict), and even those people would struggle with food shortages, radioactive fallout spreading across the globe. Just being in rural America not near bases or cities may not be enough.

You either use that fear to prepare, or you accept that there is a possibility death could happen from a lack of preparation, as can death happen at any time, and take up Buddhism or meditation or religion or ways to carry on and accept that death is sometimes a part of life.

There is a YouTube personality, who also shills products and is sort of an alarmist, called Canadian Prepper. He’s worth checking out, but I would shop around and not just buy from him. Many of his videos are informative but also alarmist, but could also one day prove prescient.