if a nuclear war happened TODAY, and a major superpower was hit by nukes...

...how would the world react?

1) denial that any strike happened, that pics of mushroom clouds were clearly photoshopped/from a movie

2) rationale for why it was actually the impacted country's fault follow

Why not both?

(That’s not what I would want; it’s what I’d immediately expect to happen.)

3) everybody starts proclaiming it's judgment day and starts posting comically edited or non-existent Bible verses that point to a warhead as evidence that the end times are here

4) Waffle House will not close in the city that's bombed

Thanks Obama!

3a.) “this is fine” memes with the smiling cartoon dog superimposed into photos of an actual apocalypse

i'd shrug and say "well, that sucks, wonder what happens next". not in the sense of actually wanting to know, but more idle curiosity.

the world would react with terror and nausea.

i say this because any major superpower under nuclear attack is equipped to retaliate with a massive nuclear response and the consequences of such a response would be globally devastating. the likelihood that any superpower would choose to restrain itself from, at a minimum, delivering a tit-for-tat exchange in the hope of avoiding a full scale nuclear war seem remote. look at how the USA reacted to 9/11 and multiply by 10.

broad confusion and disagreement about who did it

missiles can't be hidden from satellites. the only minimally traceable way to deliver a strike would be via submarine launched missiles or a "suitcase nuke". Only another superpower would have either capacity. Superpowers are in short supply. Even if retaliation isn't swift, public pressure to identify the enemy would be so overwhelming that a source would be found, even if the evidence is sketchy.

Yaaahhooooooo!

https://www.metaflix.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Slim-Pickens-Riding-Bomb-in-Dr.-Strangelove-Movie.jpg

Also someone would show up on Twitter saying

"Yo this is a tragedy and I don't wanna belittle that but I ordered a splatter vinyl from Dickhead records who are based there and just curious if this will impact the order"