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A comment on The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday. Parent comment

Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by swombat on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:27PM (#16162114)
Somewhat controversially, I wonder if that existential horror was really so bad. I can think of worse ways to spend 48 minutes that contemplating the reality of your mortality, the fact that you could very well be dead at any moment with no warning whatsoever. It makes you re-evaluate your priorities, maybe makes you stop putting off the life changes you were thinking about that seemed like they could wait until next year.

These 48 minutes may well have changed a whole bunch of people's lives for the better, in the long term.

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Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by swombat on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @06:47PM (#16164032)
Perhaps a bit of context might make it seem less like I’m being unempathetic. TL;DR: I was caught in the London tube bombings in 2005 and I believe it changed my life for the better.

http://swombat.com/2011/12/19/bomb-changed-my-life

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Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by crispyambulance on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:58PM (#16162500)
I think that for anyone who has kids, those minutes could very well have been unimaginably awful.

I guess you can think of it like waterboarding. Waterboarding doesn't harm anyone, it forces one to contemplate mortality, but it is also something so terrible that one would not wish on anybody.

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Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by hutzlibu on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:49PM (#16162389)
Or it will get them killed, once there is a real alarm and they sit down to meditate instead of seeking shelter ...
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Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by nvader on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @05:08PM (#16163191)
This is an un-empathetic thing to say, because you're ignoring the real emotional experiences of the people who lived through this. The terror experienced by people, especially but not limited to those with predisposition to anxiety, hypertension, panic attacks or suicidal thoughts, will have a real impact on their lives.

Or imagine someone who, convinced of an impending death, donates all of their saved wealth to charities online.

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