The Doomsday Clock and the Politics of Manufactured Panic

Whenever a smoke alarm is installed too close to the oven, it eventually stops protecting anyone. After enough false alarms, people end up pulling the batteries while the food is still cooking.

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The Doomsday Clock follows that path: what began as a sober warning tool now behaves like a simple noisemaker, sounding louder and more often as credibility thins with each pull.

Earlier today, atomic scientists set the 2026 Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the clock has ever been to a hypothetical obliteration.

A Cold War Tool With a Clear Purpose

When it debuted in 1947, the Doomsday Clock was created by scientists connected to the Manhattan Project, which demonstrated how nuclear weapons altered human