Not everyone believes in MAD, some believe in preemptive strikes, others believe in escalating to deescalating.

Very interesting phenomenon how popular the preemtive nuclear strike on Japan was at the time.  But after John Hersey wrote his book, Hirosima, opionion changed hugely.

The media also plays a huge role.  There is a style of propaganda, described in Ellul's book "Technique", that works on the feedback cycles of groups (think spin doctors) where the population is put in a state of "numbness" and cannot react to urgent things around them.  This is by design, there's manuals on how to achieve it, that all copywriters read.  You can disect any article in, say, The Guardian, and find the propaganda payload, and emotional triggers.  But it applies to pretty much all MSM.  They aim to create a docile sheep like population whose only recourse is to "vote harder", by achieving a total (hence totalitarian) environment.  Hopefully nostr is a bit of a break from that, tho nostr has its fair share of propaganda, too!