Why would I think that current events are different in some fundamental way?
On the other hand, Ukraine feels different to me for some reason and seems tied to broader territorial ambitions, which wasn't exactly the case before because the territory was put in place in WWII. There was Afghanistan etc but that didn't have the domino implications of NATO.
The Soviet state also seemed more stable to me than the current megalomaniac plutocracy.
China also didn't have the same presence it does now. There's more big players in some ways.
On the other hand, for awhile there in the past there were nuclear drills in classrooms, and it was for a reason.
I don't really see WWIII happening soon but if things continue to escalate everywhere it seems reasonable to wonder about it. People wondered then too.
They are different in a sense US Empire and its vassals are starting to lose wars and influence, so westerners started noticing these events as negative. Previously, they didn’t care.
"We did not lose! It was a tie!"