Amid heightened tensions with nuclear armed North Korea a conservative magazine is telling its readers not to worry too much about a potential nuclear strike.
An article published Monday in the National Review reassures readers that nuclear war—and North Korea's arsenal—shouldn't cause them concern because even if a nuclear strike were to impact Manhattan directly, "the vast majority of New Yorkers would survive the initial blast."
"A strike would devastate central Honolulu but leave many suburbs intact," said the article, detailing what people need to do to increase their chances of survival. "If the missile misses a city center even by a small amount, the number of initial casualties plunges dramatically."
"Nuclear weapons are devastating, but it's a Hollywood myth that any individual strike will vaporize an entire American city, much less the suburbs and countryside," the article adds.
The story appeared after panic gripped Hawaii last Saturday when the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency accidentally sent out the alert warning a ballistic missile was inbound toward the island chain.
A series of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests last year by North Korea's authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump's heated rhetoric last summer promising the regime "will be met with fire and fury" have both contributed to heightened tensions.
Read more: Hawaii missile T-shirts go on sale days after false alarm sparks mass panic
About 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas with large regional areas—including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago—remaining the most densely populated, according to numbers from the 2010 Census. Yet there are some 3,500 "urban" areas across the U.S.
During the 2016 election, Trump won 50 percent of the vote in suburban America and 62 percent of the vote in small cities and rural areas compared to Hillary Clinton's 45 and 34 percent performance in the regions.
Conservatives tend to prefer small towns and rural areas, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, with 46 percent of liberals preferring city life compared to just 4 percent of conservatives who said the same.
The most sprawling urban areas in the U.S. are also the most Republican compared to densely populated urban centers.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Graham Lanktree covers U.S. politics for Newsweek. He is based in London and frequently appears as a contributor on BBC ... Read more
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