[user104658]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I've been reading Watchmen recently, and one of the subsubplots is how people are worried about WWIII because of Russia's attacks on the 'Stans.

Would any of those old enough to remember the 80s say those goings-on did make it feel like war was imminent? Did it feel the same then as now?

I'm not old enough to remember however the Soviet Union (pre-80's) was a legitimate global power in a way that modern Russia is currently not and I imagine the looming whisper of nuclear war was quite worrying throughout the Cold War era.

However.

You then have to factor in that the internet did not exist in any meaningful form until the late 90's, and mass adoption of everyday internet use/social media until later still, so people weren't as "immersed in the news" as we are now. I think that must make a huge difference. News used to be scary when you read about it and then you could put it to the back of your mind. These days it just pops up to whack you in the face again every 2 minutes. Which is actually really unhealthy.