• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I wish people knew what “Third World” meant, from a historical context. Quite a few historical “Third World” nations were as advanced as their NATO and Soviet peers, at the time the term was coined. But the most advanced nations were then subjected to decades of sanction and espionage and outright bombing, until the term became synonymous with war-torn hellhole.

      The US doesn’t have this excuse. We’re de-industrializing due to a combination of cheapass degeneracy and vindictive bigotry.

      • Zephyr@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Yeah everyone was about as advanced at a time. The world is a competition and the west had an edge during a very pivotal moment of rapid technological and scientific advancement. Honestly China had quite an edge for a long time but fumbled it at the wrong moment but caught up pretty quick once they stopped killing everyone. International interference is a given. China messes with US who messes with Russia and China and so on. No one is anyone’s friend here, it’s partnerships of convenance at best. As someone who has lived in undeveloped countries it’s not just that causing the problems, there’s a lot of internal and regional nonsense as well. The potential for development is crazy but everyone is just out for themselves. Politicians from local areas all the way up to the president couldn’t give two shits about their country, they just want to get their money and get a house in Europe.

    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Particularly towards its minority populations. The US is full of colonized peoples and regions that it has, if not an extractive relationship with, than a relationship that’s passively exterminationist.

      In much the same way that the US shoved its indigenous peoples only reservations, expecting them to die off or otherwise exit the stage of history, black people were redlined into inner cities for the same purpose. Now Gary, IN is without power, Flint, MI goes without water, etc.

      Of course, this also becomes an active process as well, like when the FBI murdered Fred Hampton, or propped up a tinpot dictator on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota in the 70s.

      But that internal Colonial relationship is at the core of all of it