If aliens are real I think they can save our species from self destruction. If they are here then they are monitoring our communication. They likely are watching the internet. Maybe if enough people start asking them to intervene they can step in and stop WW3 and nuclear Armageddon. They could disable the nukes. Let's start praying to the aliens to disarm all nuclear weapons on Earth. But you have to write it on the internet because I don't think they can read our thoughts.

Alien Overlords, hear our prayer.

The aliens always want earth teetering on the edge of self-destruction but never quite going over. It leaves the humans very open to suggestion and control. It is also part of the experiment to see how long a civilisation can be on the edge and not go over. This is actually part of the Drake equation about the number of civilizations in the universe so an important part of the experiment.

Charles Fort would so love this.

This doomposting feels like it's getting a bit out of hand…

dragonsong12 wrote:
This doomposting feels like it's getting a bit out of hand…

Recommend Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages. By Eugen Weber.
There's also Apocalypse Pretty Soon: travels in End time America. By Alexander S. Heard
Though both are from 1999 the whole scene hasn't changed at all. It's all the same just recycled.

bravo1102 wrote:
Though both are from 1999 the whole scene hasn't changed at all. It's all the same just recycled.

You're right and I definitely agree, but I was speaking more directly about OP who has now posted three threads not that far apart from each other with similar paranoid/conspiratorial rhetoric.

OP, I'm going to repeat my advice from the last thread that maybe you should get away from the internet and the news for a while and I'm also going to add that maybe you should talk to someone about your fears. Probably best if it's someone not on a comic forum.

If it's all just a bit and I'm missing it, then egg on my face, I guess. but I think I'd rather err on the side of caution.

dragonsong12 wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:
Though both are from 1999 the whole scene hasn't changed at all. It's all the same just recycled.

OP, I'm going to repeat my advice from the last thread that maybe you should get away from the internet and the news for a while and I'm also going to add that maybe you should talk to someone about your fears. Probably best if it's someone not on a comic forum.

The concerns are bigger for Lothar because he's living in Japan and the news there would be talking a lot about the threats from North Korea and China - NK is a very real issue because they're firing missiles directly over head and into the sea apparently.
That and the rising tensions from Russia (because of the war), and China (because of its massive militarisation and annexing territory in the nearby oceans) I imagine the position in Japan feels a bit tenuous. :(

So Lothar feels compelled to vent.

Established range of NK missiles is about 2800 km. Japan and ROK are threatened directly. First use has been expanded by NK to include military commanders. The threat is palpable, but as I have said before the JSDF and ROK are more than capable of defending against NK threat.

Europe however isn't quite so capable of defending against the Russians.

However in the end it is so much hype from the media. See Scud attacks on Israel in 1990. If the defense assets are available and deployed a missile attack is like shooting an arrow against one of those Roman legion tortoise formations.

Ukraine doesn't have the capability to defend against missiles. ROK, Japan and parts of NATO do. So the whole thing about dealing with media doomsday predictions is a little research and critical thinking.

Just like knowing about the first century CE and the Emperor Nero takes all the threat out of the Book of Revelation. It was talking about current events, not the distant future. Jesus said that those listening to him would still be alive when the Prophecies came to pass. Current events. 66 CE and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome is the Book of Revelation.

Nostradamus similarly was talking about the 16th century. In fact some of his Prophecies were wishful thinking against the enemies of Catherine d'Medici's France and didn't come true.

I was a kid in the 1970s. We were terrified of a nuclear holocaust. We were just past the “duck and cover” but still got the Civil Defense videos and you saw the blue and white CD bomb shelter signs. When it came time in 5th grade or so to write a report on current events I chose the arms balance between the US and USSR. I researched ballistic missiles, MIRV warheads, size and yield. First and second strike capacity. And read a book detailing the effects of a nuclear blast specifically a 1MT air or ground blast on the center of New York City. Put all the numbers and capabilities into a two volume paper. Got a 98. I was precocious. Soon after I'd be sent to the child study team to address my anxiety.

I also read the Prophecies of Nostradamus and Hal Lindsay's Late Great Planet Earth I was really into this. I had generalized anxiety and was ostracized by my peers. So I had to learn how to cope with the stresses of having an imagination, ability to study complex stuff and a sensitive nature.

I lived through the nuclear freeze movement as well as the debate over the MX missile, B-1 bomber and deployment of the Pershing missiles, SALT I and II and I understood it beyond the media hype. I came to understand how much they simplified things and pumped up shock value to work on the emotions. In coping I'd learned to think. It wasn't CBT yet, but I could break things down and think my way through.

So I lived this hype. I know ranges and missile capabilities. NK has a missile that can hit Australia and Western US as well as intermediate range and theater range weapons. The threat is exaggerated. The modern anti ballistic missile systems are effective enough so Japan is relatively safe. ROK not so much. It'll be a battlefield like it was 1950-3. But it's doubtful NK would use nuclear weapons unless things really went against them. They want ROK and Japan relatively intact, not a nuclear wasteland. That's what people forget. Conquest becomes worthless when you conquer a wasteland. That's the point of scorched earth retreats. You leave nothing for the victorious advancing army. They wonder for what and why the hell are they advancing?

Warfare is still about economics. You fight to take things and hold them. If you obliterate all those things might as well not fight the war. I've benefitted from being in contact with an analyst who studies economics and strategy for a living. She has made a lot of things clear and cleaned up a lot of any residual anxiety I had about extreme war scenarios. Nuclear war is worthless. Destroying everything is not strategy it is desperation and the last refuge of a truly insane person. An insane person that no one will listen to just the same as most of Hitler's orders to destroy Germany to leave nothing for the Allies fell on deaf ears. Sure this can be debated but the burden of evidence and prior experience is with my point of view and that's how wars are fought, not by the hyperbole of ignorant media shills.

Yeah. I've said way too much in this wall of text and maybe a lot of it is my rationalization and my venting. But then I just might know what I'm talking about.

Ozoneocean wrote:
The concerns are bigger for Lothar because he's living in Japan and the news there would be talking a lot about the threats from North Korea and China - NK is a very real issue because they're firing missiles directly over head and into the sea apparently.
That and the rising tensions from Russia (because of the war), and China (because of its massive militarisation and annexing territory in the nearby oceans) I imagine the position in Japan feels a bit tenuous. :(

So Lothar feels compelled to vent.

Totally understandable and a fair point. There's a lot to be scared of these days - the world is on fire and that statement isn't really even hyperbole in a lot of places. I totally understand feeling that fear and needing to vent it somehow.

I guess my somewhat unpopular opinion is just that I'm wary of seeing people go down the conspiracy rabbit hole in response because that can lead to some very dark places. Even if it doesn't, appealing to aliens in the face of all this scary stuff happening in the world probably isn't going to help for a variety of reasons. And while I don't really know anyone here and can't say for sure, I don't think members of a comic forum are going to be super helpful either.

OP's fear seems genuine to me, so I think they really need some real help and they shouldn't need to rely on aliens to do it (it's not like aliens have been super helpful so far, after all). It's why my advice keeps being to step back for a bit to recompose, because I have felt existential panic myself recently and found taking some time to reset to be VERY helpful. But I recognize that I'm not Lothar and what helps me may not be helpful to OP, so that's why I pivoted to suggesting they find someone to talk to.

None of this is to say that OP shouldn't talk about what they're feeling so I hope I'm not coming across as dismissive or trying to silence Lothar, but it just seems like a bigger problem than we're really equipped to handle.

And while I don't really know anyone here and can't say for sure, I don't think members of a comic forum are going to be super helpful either.

And ignoring the wall of text I posted which is based on treatments for generalized anxiety behavior. Well it was a wall of text and who reads those?

Recognize the problem.
-why do I feel this way?
-Be specific
-recognizing a specific reason or trigger is vital to coping with and defeating the feelings.
-recognize solutions that exist for what you fear. Break it down into its components and think about and recognize potential solutions.
-recognize your own limitations.
-acknowledge the feelings, accept that there are things you have no personal control over.

BUT and this is vital: YOU DO HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OF YOURSELF AND HOW YOU RESPOND TO THINGS.

You can't change the world. It's scary and painful but you can change how you respond to it and make positive strides to live your life better.

Understanding what you fear can help immensely with dealing with it. All standards of therapy for this behavior.

Been there, done that and have tons of tee-shirts. Even served in the military to make what little contribution I could to these huge existential fears. Coping mechanisms because in the military it's your job be part of the ways to deal with this stuff.

I still think it's a good idea.

Given some of the things that are currently being revealed about alien craft and dead aliens being held by the US government and all the recent sightings, you guys still think this is a bad idea?

lothar wrote:
Given some of the things that are currently being revealed about alien craft and dead aliens being held by the US government and all the recent sightings, you guys still think this is a bad idea?

Imagine they traveled all this way to meet earthlings and expand their multi-planetary species.

I bet any alien that came across Grind would have traveled this far to meet its creator, lothar.

To any aliens intercepting this message: Thank you. <3

lothar wrote:
Given some of the things that are currently being revealed about alien craft and dead aliens being held by the US government and all the recent sightings, you guys still think this is a bad idea?

But what if they don't save us, but instead exploit us?

Far worse than we're already being exploited that is, like being cut up for bio technology or fighting as gladiators or used as hosts for some tentacled thing?

Man, I have got to stop reading my own comics. 🤣 XD

A fun, entertaining, informative read.

My symbiote says most visitors here are refugees from their own war-racked planets, so don't expect too much help.

I reckon the best chance for aliens is that they are our descendents. They've populated the galaxy post Earth and have worked out how to travel back in time. Stands to reason they wouldn't interfere as it might risk their own existence.

Ironscarf wrote:
I reckon the best chance for aliens is that they are our descendents. They've populated the galaxy post Earth and have worked out how to travel back in time. Stands to reason they wouldn't interfere as it might risk their own existence.

That makes sense in a way XD
It's harder to travel interstellar distances at a meaningful/useful rate than it is to travel in time.

The thing with *“aliens” is that we'll probably never encounter any because the chances of a species developing in a similar way to use that they can see and hear and understand like we do is so remote- let alone ALSO be close enough to travel to us, let alone that they just happen to learn of out existence in the brief time they we sent out radio signals into outerspace… There are too many things that have to win the lottery and work exactly right for the SciFi stories to be true.
*“aliens” like in the movies. We will probably encounter alien life on the moons or planets of this solar system.

Add to that they'd never be our size (they'd either be much bigger or smaller). Most scifi has been overly influenced by TV and movies where aliens are humans in suites and makeup so we make aliens human sized, have the same limbs, same senses, a head, a face etc when in reality those things are the products of millions of years of evolution (billions of compound random chances and adaptations to evolutionary pressures) absolutely exclusive to this planet alone.

It's ironic to me that in scifi people relate to aliens so well and even fall in love and have sex with them while the reality is that slugs, scorpions, and fungus are absolutely related to us and to “aliens” those things might even be seen as the same as us because we share all the same DNA (70% with slugs, 60% with bananas, 90% with cats!).

So if people want to think of a scifi future where the aliens are human like and we can fall in love and all that then having them as humans who've gone back in time is more logical and possible XD