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loudthing · 2022-04-23 11:59:42

I’ve never heard someone call their own country a “third world country”. Out of curiosity, which country are you referring to?

sjg007 | karma 6164 | avg karma 0.98 · | 2021-08-12 09:02:59

What is this, a third world country?

coldtea | karma 86593 | avg karma 2.38 · | 2022-01-16 13:08:42

Third world.

ryanmarsh | karma 4617 | avg karma 1.94 · | 2017-02-27 07:53:00+00:00

Ever been to a 3rd world country?

CTDOCodebases | karma 927 | avg karma 1.61 · | 2022-09-15 17:22:16

They are making a joke.

“Third world” was just a grouping of nations that didn’t align themselves with the USA or USSR during the cold war.

Over time labelling a country as “3rd world” become the de facto way of categorising it as a “developing country”.

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Morizero | karma 485 | avg karma 7.58 · | 2017-12-19 04:15:43+00:00

Third world country by definition cannot be the United States. The term refers to countries unaligned with a cold war superpower. It's outdated and has better alternatives.

midasuni | karma 4176 | avg karma 2.1 · | 2022-04-30 03:43:20

Which would make Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Japan etc third world.

That’s not how the term is used.

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Drbble | karma 874 | avg karma 0.95 · | 2012-02-26 15:54:24

Third World?

haolez | karma 3647 | avg karma 2.78 · | 2021-08-15 21:23:27

I live in a third world country. Can confirm.

cptskippy | karma 9386 | avg karma 2.4 · | 2020-09-18 14:38:16+00:00

The meaning of the term Third World is different depending on the context. In a bureaucratic sense it has a very strict meaning, but more colloquially it's used as a derogatory to imply that a country is backward or almost savage in comparison to First World countries.

andsoitis | karma 15255 | avg karma 3.51 · | 2022-12-04 09:18:18

> As a third world national whose country

Which country?

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csomar | karma 16546 | avg karma 2.52 · | 2016-10-21 19:23:01

That sound like a third-world country to me.

jmvoodoo | karma 907 | avg karma 4.47 · | 2018-12-25 23:54:33+00:00

US, Western EU countries, and even China are by definition not third world.

Flex247A | karma 670 | avg karma 4.38 · | 2020-11-11 05:40:49+00:00

I live in a third world country, can confirm.

mathetic | karma 1033 | avg karma 6.8 · | 2013-07-27 06:55:06+00:00

So you consider UK as a third world country?

wodenokoto | karma 15554 | avg karma 2.59 · | 2018-05-21 19:32:12+00:00

According to Wikipedia, it is a developing country, which is basically the modern way of saying third world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country#Country_lis...

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philliphaydon | karma 7580 | avg karma 2.32 · | 2013-11-02 09:32:41

Have you actually been to a 3rd world country? If you had, your comment makes no sense at all...

freyir | karma 3558 | avg karma 6.04 · | 2018-05-21 18:49:52+00:00

You're getting downvoted, but you're right.

A "third-world country" was a country that wasn't aligned to either the Western countries (first world) or the Communist Bloc (second world).

These terms have become outdated, and "developing" countries is more commonly used now by, e.g., the press.

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zengr | karma 2638 | avg karma 3.44 · | 2011-04-25 05:12:38+00:00

Is it only me or calling it a 3rd world country really sounds humiliating?

pg_1234 | karma 7044 | avg karma 3.93 · | 2021-09-17 11:57:09

Congratulations, you've just successfully argued that the USA is a third world country.