I don’t know how else to say it to friends and people who message me: it’s not the start of World War III. Stop it.
You need to understand the people involved.
Putin does not want to be remembered as the man who destroyed humanity. His ego craves recognition, and Russians want the Russian-speaking territories, not war (in fact, he took it very badly when we intervened: to him, the invaded areas are Russian and it’s between him and Ukraine, not our business). I know the newspapers tell you otherwise, but the geopolitics and the actions are clear.
Trump follows game theory. But in game theory there are different roles. Trump is the one who, when two cars are heading straight at each other (chicken game), swerves at the last second. Not the one who goes straight. He faked a medical certificate to dodge military service, and his real concept is New York luxury (and the pleasures of the flesh, as the Epstein Files teach us). Everything MAGA is just electoral fluff to grab the votes of idiots.
Xi Jinping is a strong leader but not a totalitarian one. China’s coast already lives in the future and wants anything but war since it’s extremely rich. The interior lives ten years behind but doesn’t have all that much of a grudge against the US. Trump cut off their Venezuelan and Iranian supplies, yet no war broke out because they pivoted to Russia. China doesn’t have that much naval power, by the way.
There are a thousand reasons to find any World War III scenario absurd if you look at things objectively and directly, without filtering through clickbait interpretations.