News that the Doomsday Clock is now at two minutes to midnight hasn’t seemed to worry people online, despite this being the closest we’ve been to midnight in 65 years.
The clock serves as an indicator of how near experts from The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists deem us to be to a nuclear catastrophe.
Our position on the clock is reviewed annually, and this year it was moved forward by 30 seconds.
Of all the clocks, Doomsday is probably my favourite
— M@t (@m_brand) January 25, 2018
And no, it’s not an actual clock, but a symbol for how that particular panel of experts feels about the nuclear climate.
Some saw the upside to the rather depressing news.
Sure it's 2 minutes to doomsday now, but we'll get an extra hour once Doomsday Savings Time ends.
— J. Elvis Weinstein (@JElvisWeinstein) January 25, 2018
The last time the clock was this close to midnight was 1953 – the year that Stalin died and when the Cold War is widely agreed to have begun.
Don't forget to turn your Doomsday Clocks forward & your history books backward
— Aparna Nancherla (@aparnapkin) January 25, 2018
Drinking to celebrate the news seemed like a good idea to some people.
doomsday clock just moved us 30 seconds closer to absolute annihilation so ill be moving myself closer to 10 pints tonight in celebration
— jim kardashian (@james_m_long) January 25, 2018
It maybe two minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, but it's five o'clock somewhere.
— TS Hendrik (@NotNotTSHendrik) January 25, 2018
Others said the time change had thrown a spanner in the works for their life plans.
Me: Maybe I actually *DO* want kids.
Doomsday clock: lol
— Woke But Petty (@marcformarc) January 25, 2018
Some were sick of the threats, and wanted the nuclear apocalypse to just hurry up and strike already.
That doomsday clock better hit midnight soon, I've got a project coming up I REALLY don't want to do. That clock has been teasing me my whole god damned life.
— Em B (@okwowcool) January 25, 2018
news: the doomsday clock is now 2 minutes from midnight
world: we need to enact policy to move the clock back
twitter: y'all should just round up so we can end it
— Jay Walker (@JayWalkr) January 25, 2018
Others identified with the Doomsday Clock a little too well.
my own personal doomsday clock is also set at two minutes to midnight
— an angel (@napgenius) January 25, 2018
This probably isn’t the reaction the scientists had in mind when telling us how close the human race was to nuclear Armageddon.
