Nuclear weapons, UFOs and a crazy conspiracy theory

Trying to unclutter my head of some of the more, shall we say exotic, theories out there. This one goes:

The vast quantity of nuclear weapons held by the primary powers far exceeds the wildest conventional requirement and is for use as a self destruct deterent against an alien invasion.

Is there a straightforward rebuttal?
I guess it implies the button pushing heads of state would need to be in the loop and that alien motives were either unknown or threatening.

ChrisIB said:

Is there a straightforward rebuttal?

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Since when have nuclear weapons ever stopped alien invaders? Martians, Independence Day squids, even Godzilla shrugged them off. If we're going to speculate about ET I say they wouldn't want to provoke us to use anything like that more out of concern we'll kill ourselves in the process of trying to inflict harm on them.

As for the need for so many nukes, I don't get it either. They're not going to just go away on their own for millions of years and it costs money to get rid of them. I read something kind of scary regarding the modernization - that they have modified existing h-bombs for a selectable yield - called 'dial-a-nuke' . Wipe a city off the map or just a protected installation? Pick the size of the boom needed.

U.S. Nuclear Modernization Programs | Arms Control Association

So this all pushed the Doomsday Clock a bit closer to midnight: Timeline - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

ChrisIB said:

Trying to unclutter my head of some of the more, shall we say exotic, theories out there. This one goes:

The vast quantity of nuclear weapons held by the primary powers far exceeds the wildest conventional requirement and is for use as a self destruct deterent against an alien invasion.

Is there a straightforward rebuttal?
I guess it implies the button pushing heads of state would need to be in the loop and that alien motives were either unknown or threatening.

Click to expand...

Is this something you actually worry about?

Is this something you actually worry about?

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God no, but 14500 nuclear weapons (92% US and Russia) is not deterrent it's fireball, and it's slightly puzzling.
Taken with the 643 billion US 'defence' budget (2018) it all seems a little anomalous (not a political point by the way).

Not really worried about us or the Godless Commies, its India and Pakistan at the top of the list. And maybe the next few entries on the same list for good measure.

I honestly don't think Israel would use one short of an existential crisis but those have happened to them within living memory.

ChrisIB said:

God no, but 14500 nuclear weapons (92% US and Russia) is not deterrent it's fireball, and it's slightly puzzling.
Taken with the 643 billion US 'defence' budget (2018) it all seems a little anomalous (not a political point by the way).View attachment 6957

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That chart in a % of GDP might be a more accurate reflection