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?

  • NotNotMike
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    4 months 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

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

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

          • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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            4 months 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.

      • NotNotMike
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        4 months 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.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months 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…