Comment by flohofwoe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by flohofwoe | Hacker News Reader

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It's quite literally the "western definition" of Third World:

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

Do you think the Soviets would have called the US aligned countries "First World"? ;)

The more 'correct' term for that modern/popular meaning of 3rd world is 'developing countries' (or in German "Entwicklungslaender"). But tbh, I have no idea when, how and why the transition from 'politically unaligned country' to 'underdeveloped country' happened in the modern popular opinion - the Wikipedia article has some ideas though - but tbh I would never have considered Cold Ware era Cuba or Vietnam to be "3rd world countries", and after 1990 the whole idea behind those "three worlds" has lost all meaning anyway, and especially after China had entered the chat.

Yugoslavia and Albania are more interesting cases though indeed, at least Yugoslavia tried to play both sides during the cold war, while Albania started as a very close Soviet ally but then moved towards China and then eventually ending up as completely isolationist.

Also as a clear example for a '2nd world despot' look at Romania's Ceausescu, and for examples of '1st world despots' look at Spain under Franco (easy to forget that Spain was a fascist dictatorship until the 1970s), or Chile under Pinochet.

The definition has shifted towards socioeconomic descriptor, nobody uses the old definition because it's no longer WW2

> nobody uses the old definition because it's no longer WW2

These are Cold War terms (post WW2). And for the Cold War era it makes sense to use the original meaning.

IMHO the term "3rd world country" shouldn't be used in the first place when talking about the time after the early 1990s though. It's misleading and the "modern" meaning comes with a hefty whiff of implied racism/colonialism.

I agree

The Soviet didn't use this numerical terminology usually, but rather a categorical/ideological distinct classifications:

- Socialist Countries (only the developed ones)

- Developed Capitalist Countries

- Developing Countries(Развивающиеся страны). (with a secondary subdivision for countries in a "non-capitalist path of development", a.k.a. non developed socialist countries)

In more ideologically charged contexts, the Developed Capitalist Countries could be called the Imperialist Camp.

« quite literally » – Not what I remember, but okay, that may have been the original meaning before I "entered the chat". Then, it was associated with hunger, poverty, misery. I remember distinctly.

« Do you think the Soviets » – Right, that was silly. They had their own propaganda.

« Spain was a fascist dictatorship until the 1970s » – It seems the worst thing they ever did was aiding and abetting the U.S. Air Force. Certainly shameful, but then again "not a unique selling proposition" in Europe.

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