this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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Today I Learned (TIL)
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Jesus America is a third world country.
No. The US is very much a first world country. It's literally the definition. It is the US.
And this is what a capitalist country does. This is what first world countries look like.
Nah. The Scandinavian countries are what I consider true first world.
Help us out: what do you think “First World,” “Second World,” and “Third World” actually mean? The terms referred to cold war political alignment: the U.S.-led bloc, the Soviet-led bloc, and countries aligned with neither. It was not a tidy ranking from rich and civilized to poor and backward.
Yes those were the original definitions but colloquial usage has shifted from the original meaning. Although these days the preferred terminology is developed/developing/under developed.
under developed is only preferred in academic circles, particularly economics. most other places refer to such places as "over-exploited"
Or "2/3rds world" (as in the majority of countries neither aligned with Soviet Communism nor US Capitalism and therefore not as exploited or industrialized/polluting)
I mean it in the colloquial sense based on how well taken care of the people are. No I am not writing a dissertation. This is a discussion on a message board where people may use hyperbole to make their opinion clear
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Q. What do you call a third world country that takes care of its people as well as Scandinavia?
A. Overdue for a CIA coup
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First world is not a state of a country, it's a label the US and Europe created after WWII for themselves.
🇺🇲🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
has always been.No, they aren't and that is the sad thing. They could be a great country. They choose this instead.
FTFY
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CW: nitpicking
taking the lord's name in vain or cultural appropriation
The USA, not the rest of America
reproduces the notion of the linear progression of civilization, a liberal colonialist fabrication
a shithole implies a shitter outside of it, but the US is not being shat upon from the outside
implies there are no others, which isn't true
binary thinking and possible essentialism
slur against the mentally disabled
Correct, v-coding is rape.
Wow, I knew the USA structurally empowers people to engage in great cruelty, but I hadn't imagined this in particular. It's probably recency bias but this feels like a new low.
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