4 ms·

Ummm... China is not a third world country. It was a second world country. In fact the whole point of the definition of first/second/third world revolves around

by sdm 10y ago

Ummm... China is not a third world country. It was a second world country. In fact the whole point of the definition of first/second/third world revolves around China, the USSR, and their allies being the second world. What you mean to say is China is a developing country. Please leave the old out dated and irrelevant cold war propaganda terminology in the past where it belongs. Remember, Switzerland and Sweden are both canonical examples of third world countries: they were allied with neither the UK/US block or the China/USSR block. Likewise, just because a country is a first world country doesn't mean it's rich -- some of the poorest countries in the world are first world countries, like Namibia.

seanmcdirmid 10y ago
I know what you are saying, and I get "China is still a developing country" clobbered into my skull almost everyday. Third world just sounds better in contrast to first world, especially when prefixed by "problems"; there are no subreddits for developed and developing world problems, but they exist for first and third world problems (https://www.reddit.com/r/thirdworldproblems https://www.reddit.com/r/thirdworldproblems and https://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems https://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems). It seems that third-world has evolved past its old cold war meaning to just mean "developing world"; here is what Google says on its title card for a search on "third world" (https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+problems&oq=third+world+problems&aqs=chrome..69i57.2007j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=third+world+ https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+problems&oq=thir...): Third World noun the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. (I think Google gets this from Oxford, first world problems comes from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=First%20World%20Problems http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=First%20World...). If one wants to explore the old meaning, we have to go to wiki, and even wiki says: > Over the last few decades since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term Third World has been used interchangeably with the least developed countries, the Global South, and developing countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development, a term that often includes "Second World" countries like Laos. This usage, however, has become less preferred in recent years.[1] Remember that words can change meaning over the years, even if they do not remain true to their old meanings. This is just another way our language evolves. An attachment to the old meaning of a term is usually not going to sway people's opinion of the word's definition.
- cromulent 10y ago
  Technically Switzerland and Finland are third world countries by the original definition. That's not very useful in modern conversation though, just as describing happy people as gay is not useful.

by sdm 10y ago

seanmcdirmid 10y ago

I know what you are saying, and I get "China is still a developing country" clobbered into my skull almost everyday. Third world just sounds better in contrast to first world, especially when prefixed by "problems"; there are no subreddits for developed and developing world problems, but they exist for first and third world problems (https://www.reddit.com/r/thirdworldproblems https://www.reddit.com/r/thirdworldproblems and https://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems https://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems). It seems that third-world has evolved past its old cold war meaning to just mean "developing world"; here is what Google says on its title card for a search on "third world" (https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+problems&oq=third+world+problems&aqs=chrome..69i57.2007j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=third+world+ https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+problems&oq=thir...): Third World noun the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. (I think Google gets this from Oxford, first world problems comes from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=First%20World%20Problems http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=First%20World...). If one wants to explore the old meaning, we have to go to wiki, and even wiki says: > Over the last few decades since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term Third World has been used interchangeably with the least developed countries, the Global South, and developing countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development, a term that often includes "Second World" countries like Laos. This usage, however, has become less preferred in recent years.[1] Remember that words can change meaning over the years, even if they do not remain true to their old meanings. This is just another way our language evolves. An attachment to the old meaning of a term is usually not going to sway people's opinion of the word's definition.

cromulent 10y ago
Technically Switzerland and Finland are third world countries by the original definition. That's not very useful in modern conversation though, just as describing happy people as gay is not useful.