Hey, Starlee Kine. We still miss Mystery Show, but while we mourn its disappearance, why don’t you tell everyone what this past week has felt like?
Jesus you miss one day’s worth of news and you’re Luke returning home to his aunt and uncle on Tatooine.
— Starlee Kine (@StarleeKine) January 25, 2017
Yep, pretty much sums it up. This has been the week where reality has been rejected by those in charge, and perhaps with good reason, considering how badly reality is working out for… almost everyone? But if you’ve had the good luck to have been busy doing other things for the past seven days, here’s a quick roundup of what you might have missed over the last week of World Wide Web-spinning.
It’s the End of the World as We Know It and This Is Fine
What Happened: So, turns out that the Doomsday Clock was updated this week, for those of us having trouble dealing with the anxiety of the modern world.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: But perhaps all this naysaying and doom-mongering is just paranoia, and things aren’t as bad as they seem. Let us just check in with what the big brains at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—you know, the people behind the Doomsday Clock—are saying to get some perspective.
Doomsday Clock moving from 3 minutes to midnight to 2 and a half minutes to midnight
— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) January 26, 2017
Well, crap. So, what brought us that little bit closer to apocalypse? According to the official announcement, none other than the new President of the United States. Well, him and a general worldwide push towards nationalism. “Disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons made by Donald Trump, as well as the expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by both Trump and several of his cabinet appointees, affected the Board’s decision, as did the emergence of strident nationalism worldwide,” the release explains.
The change was, of course, picked up by multiple news outlets as everyone tried to just pretend everything was fine.
Certainly, there were plenty of doubters on Twitter:
Have to say, introducing half-minutes to the Doomsday Clock feels like a cop-out.
— Phil Sandifer (@PhilSandifer) January 26, 2017
Real talk: The Doomsday Clock is stupid.
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) January 27, 2017
At least some people had a certain type of gallows humor…
Can’t wait to hear Donald Trump’s response to the #doomsdayclock moving 2.5 mins to midnight. Probably has a clock that is bigger & better