IMO, The US has crumbling infrastructure, corrupt government, dangerous cities, and a lot of homelessness, among so many other problems. Hell, millions of people in the US don’t even have power right now.

What’s the difference?

  • @WhatsHerBucketOP
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    01 month ago

    I’m not trolling, I’m genuinely asking. What doesn’t fall into the definition of a third world country?

    • NotNotMike
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      501 month ago

      It’s a cold war term - basically, first world is the US and capitalist countries, second world is the Soviet and communist countries, and third world are the unaffiliated.

      It’s slightly more nuanced than that, but that’s the basic summary.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

      • @MissJinx
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        1 month ago

        deleted by creator

        • @MrJameGumb
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          291 month ago

          Or maybe we come up with a new word instead of just using old words incorrectly?

          • @[email protected]
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            151 month ago

            We literally did come up with new terms after the cold war. We now say Developing and Developed nations.

            • @[email protected]
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              71 month ago

              Nope that was apparently too confusing, now we say global north and global south.

              It’s a much better system, see Australia in the south of the globe, is in the global north for instance. It just makes perfect sense.

            • @MrJameGumb
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              21 month ago

              Well there you go! Problem solved!

        • NotNotMike
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          121 month ago

          I’m sorry but that’s still the meaning of the term. I know it is colloquially understood to mean a “poor” country, but we shouldn’t ignore the original intent.

          Also, please don’t tell me how my country is. I quite literally live here. I can read every article online that you can, plus I can go outside and see it for myself. We know we have problems, we aren’t ignorant to them - at least not all of us - and they’re nowhere near as bad as some commentors on this post believe they are.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 month ago

          As a non american we 100% see america as 3rd world.

          Speak for yourself. I see it as fucked up, but definitely not third-world…

    • @perviouslyiner
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      1 month ago
      • 1st world = US, NATO, and their allies.
      • 2nd world = USSR, China, the Warsaw Pact, and their allies.
      • 3rd world = everyone else.

      e.g. Switzerland would be a 3rd world country by the original definition.

    • ZephrC
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      161 month ago

      Third world actually came from the cold war. There were the two major sides, but then there was a whole bunch of countries that weren’t really on either side. A whole “third world”. Of course, a lot of those countries were poor, so the term came to be associated with that, but there really isn’t a coherent definition of what it means to be a third world county. It has never really been about the standard of living for the average citizen though. More about whether a country is a bully or the bullied on the international stage, and we all know where the US falls on that spectrum.

    • JJROKCZ
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      81 month ago

      It’s a term rooted in geo-political alliances and power standings, not economic status