> I'm afraid that just C++ being C++ and you are deep into UB

Of course, but the reason to even do this is only to illustrate that it's just another variable, nothing more. As much for myself as for you.

I've heard the stories about older languages but I assume that's not a thing on a modern Fortran and I'm sure we agree it's a bad idea.

The main thrust of this sub-thread was that languages can, and I believe Rust did, choose to solve the same issues but in a better way and so "This is too complicated in C++" doesn't translate to "It will be too complicated in every language". I think some C++ people have a version of the "End of History" nonsense, which is a nineteenth century idea. If you think noteworthy change happened after that and so history didn't end then hopefully you agree that makes no sense for general world history, and perhaps you can agree likewise C++ isn't the final apex of programming languages.