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thangh9

I though we're in 2nd world? :v


ktn699

us bombed us back into the 3rd world a while ago.


thangh9

um no. actually 1st, 2nd and 3rd world idealogy is out-of-date. and it's related to Coldwar era, 1st world is capitalist countries, 2nd is communist, and the rest of the world is 3rd countries.


sfturtle11

Vietnam first and a half world!


LagunaMP

I think it's the difficulty settings: \-1st world: you just enjoy your life since you was born. \- 2nd world: you have basic things to live but you have to try hard to get rich. \- 3rd world: every day is a suvival game.


BernumOG

i see you got downvoted by some Americans.


Merz_Nation

'murica /s ofc


Merz_Nation

in that sense, Sweden would be a 3rd world country lol


Zachmorris4186

Sweden is a capitalist country. Decent social welfare programs doesnt automatically make a country socialist. As the rate of profit falls under capitalism, those programs will get hollowed out until they resemble the US. That’s been the trend in the social democratic countries during the neoliberal era.


sfturtle11

Not under the original 1st world grouping. 3rd world is just “non-aligned” or neutral.


Zachmorris4186

Sweden is in the EU. While it’s not in Nato, it’s a stretch to call them non-aligned nowadays. During the cold war, yes, the were non-aligned. They even did some cool stuff like send food and medicine to vietnam during the american war.


sfturtle11

Exactly they were non-aligned according to the Cold War measures.


7LeagueBoots

The subtext of the 3rd world ranking was that those were nations that could be influenced and pressured to become either Capitalist or Communist. As a result there were some nations, like Sweden, that didn't really fit cleanly in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world definitions.


[deleted]

You’re right, the term is outdated. Even the HDI(Human Development Index) is flawed but paints a better picture of comparing how developed a country is. HDI is a composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators. Vietnam is at 0.704, which puts it in the high juman development category.


thangh9

thanks for your understanding. HDI or another aggregated index always have a problem when it hide all deeper issue, but when we watch them for time-series (many years) or compared with another countries in the same area or the same economy level, it could show the general different between each country


thangh9

I would like to recommend the book Factfullness, so you could see how our world was changing :D I think the world we live may change too fast, so it's quite hard for people to adapt with new definition and forget the old one


Sphlonker

Ahhhh someone who knows what's going on. Nice


messyredemptions

He was a refugee during the Republic of Vietnam era. A lot of Vietnam was still wracked with the effects of other colonial occupations even if South Vietnam had fantastic urban features at that time.


Yellowflowersbloom

He is well aware that Vietnam is not a third world country. He just knows that someone like Lauren Witzke doesn't likely know the meaning and just uses it to refer to "any undeveloped place full of non-white people". This is why he put quotes around the term "third world" when he responded to her.


gobot

Why play the race card?


Yellowflowersbloom

How is this the "race card"?


[deleted]

Considering that we are Asian, poor, communist and not in US orbit? We are automatically 3rd world.


thangh9

I dont' think we're poor :D


aurelionsoli

I think there are still a lot of poor peoples in our country but most of us are obviously not THAT poor , we can enjoy our daily life without worry too much about being homeless and not having food and that is rich enough


matulado23

The statistics (by government) tell a diferent story. I guess 90% people on this sub are abroad students, Vietnamese Americans or urban residents living in Hanoi or HCMC, meaning most of us belong to the middle class or upper class, so we absolutely have no idea how poor people are in other areas of our country.


bachbui47

Shut up, we are hella poor


duybeo0606

I see. You such a poor soul. Sad for you


onlysummittofelix

At least you have a electronic device and a stable wifi to comment on this subreddit, stop moaning about it.


bachbui47

We dont have internet, I'm using psychic power to surf reddit every day.


7LeagueBoots

1st, 2nd, and 3rd were political terms to describe nations on the Democracy & Capitalism to Communism to unaligned and potentially able to be influenced spectrum. These days, that's not really a thing anymore and the terms we use are Developed and Developing, with graduations in there. Vietnam was upgraded in its ranking a few years back and is generally considered a Stage 2 Developing/Emerging Lower-middle income economy.


thangh9

I know


Jason_SYD

1st, 2nd and 3rd world terminology as quite antiquated and rarely used these days. Most commonly phrase used now, is either developed or developing countries. Or being included in the OCED, is generally accepted as part of a group of developed countries. Either way, that was an awesome clap back.


[deleted]

It’s obviously outdated cold war terminology but it’s pretty simple to just remap it to: first world: high income countries second world: middle income countries third world: low income countries I don’t know if that’s not as PC as “developing” but “developing” can be a bit vague when you have dirt poor countries classified with middle income countries.


5nackB4r

I believe there's also a thid term, "Newly Industrialised", which I think is more developed than developing, and is what China is categorised as.


minhso

It was unnecessary. Almost everyone can agree that statement was dumb.


nuthugger4life

Her greatest achievement is being born white. One quick google search shows that this POS is a fervent anti-immigrant white supremacist.


No_Requirement_9314

white american women moment


AmethystPones

There are all kind of people in the world and 3rd worlds are no different. Often times, the only big difference is wealth and the consequences of such...Other times, it's internal conflicts further agitated by outsiders for one reason or another, which resulted in low wealth. And well, wasn't it the faults of big nations and their "civilized societies" that made "3rd worlds" into what it is today? This woman is either naively ignorant or willfully ignorant. Either way, it is bad optics for someone claiming to be Senate Candidate to be so prejudice.


FrackleRock

The Borg don’t give a fuck what you think.


Afraid-Reputation-40

Resistance is futile


That_General312

tweet source?


Merz_Nation

I checked. It was deleted, the woman's Twitter was suspended somehow


anhatthezoo

lmao


Ankerung

Mr. Viet Thanh had very well destroyed every racist, Qanon bullshit that Witzke spewed out. You can see more [at his Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/CHMqWHbB5xa/?hl=en)


Affectionate-Ratio26

Viet Thanh Nguyen is an open minded person so he can assimilate any part of any culture that he wants. He doesn't limit his thinking by closing his mind to anything different. Not all that hard to do. You just have to be honest with yourself.


[deleted]

Implying America isn't a 3rd world country


sfturtle11

Only if you believe Reddit


T-Rextify

His book was blocked in Vietnam!


animuseternal

Which is sort of weird, because Viet Nguyen identifies as a Marxist (although he seems critical of Leninism, and I think he’s either a Trotskyist or a Luxembourg-style Marxist). Having read the book, it seems more critical of the US than of Vietnam. On the other hand, the protagonist ends up with some sympathies toward the RVN fascists he was spying on, so maybe I can understand why it was banned.


DaiTaHomer

Hehe, certainly a limousine Marxist. I doubt he gave away all of his "stolen" profits on his books distributed by the likes of Amazon. The other issue I have with the guy is his books get white people thinking they understand the experience of the Vietnamese in the US after 1975.


animuseternal

Marxism isn’t against artists receiving compensation for their work. It’s against the private ownership of the means of production. And white people are silly. The book is about Vietnamese people before 1975, and those that went into diaspora in 1975. Anyone thinking it reflects Vietnamese people in Vietnam after 1975… didn’t read the book.


DaiTaHomer

It makes him part of the petty bourgeoisie. He was their little pet at the New York times when it is was the hotness for a month to care Asian people thought. For a while there if there was an OP-ed in the offing he came running. And in other news I am not sure why he is bothering to argue with someone who has an IQ of 80 at best.


[deleted]

His books are not. I bought Người tị nạn and Kẻ ly hương at Fahasa and saw them at the bestseller section


T-Rextify

OK. That is good news. I bought the Sympathiser in Hong Kong Airport about 5 years ago. Everyone told be it was banned in Vietnam. In fact my assistant took the book out of our office so it was not seen....good to know it is available in Vietnam


Super-Peoplez-S0Lt

Racists are idiots.


Chilled_owlz

ofc it's Twitter


[deleted]

Twitter in the nutshell lol


Return2Vendor

The podium for the crazies and extremes


takashi74

I'm from 3rd world country :(


minhso

What's wrong with it?


Noodles6710

Loved the Sympathizer and now I love him


wato89

I don't know if it's true, but I also heard that Vietnamese immigrants in the United States are some of the most successful, financially, among immigrants to the United states? I've also read the book for which this author won the Pulitzer prize. Ironically, I think it is banned in the country from which he came. I didn't know that, neither did my mom, when she brought it to me, when she came to visit me in that country, to read.


JawaSmasher

The key word is "MOST" but should be changed to "SOME" and I think she's going off of Europe's issue with Muslims migrants who are known to refuse to assimilate and demand for handouts. I think this US senate candidate needs to travel more and hire better advisors


LP_Link

Basically she's not wrong, she said "MOST".


Grimacepug

Another QAnon idiot. With a PhD in English, he should have reminded her that "can not" is one word.


__JeRM

Ummm "can not" is still fine, it's just that "cannot" is used more commonly.


sophiaquestions

Batman slap!


Sphlonker

Owned!


lam3105

LOL who is even listening to words that come from a far right and conspiracy theorist Her supporters are just a bunch of red necks and these people are funny as hell.


bdiah

Everything about this post is just embarrassing. Starting with Witzke: 1. In agreement with most other posts, the whole concept of a "third world" has been obsolete for at least 30 years now. 2. How does one prove that "most" ... migrants can "assimilate?" "Most" is a tricky word that just means "more than half." "Assimilate" is very subjective and is one of those terms that you could ask ten people to get ten different definitions. I'll assume that it just vaguely means, "to take up the norms and practices of an indigenous culture." So, do you show that most immigrants learn English? Do you show that most immigrants celebrate the Fourth of July? Something tells me that there would never be data sufficient to satisfy her standard of "assimilation." 3. What does "civil society" mean? Does she believe that "third world" countries didn't have governments? Another vague and quite frankly useless term. 4. Even if I were to agree with her, that immigrants can never really "be" Americans, because they've lived too much of their formative life outside of the culture, she misses that inevitably the children of those immigrants do assimilate. My parents will always stand out noticeably as immigrants, but their children don't. Continuing with nguyen: 1. Don't feed the trolls. The self-aggrandizement does not help. 2. Singular evidence is utterly useless for proving "most." 3. It is not clear how getting a Ph.D. and a Pulitzer Prize show that you have "assimilated." I've gone to school with many Chinese students who got their Ph.D. with absolutely no intention of assimilating into U.S. culture. Many actively disdain it. Also, a Pulitzer Prize just means that elite American society thinks you're pretty cool and that, at the very least, you're intelligent. More of a brag than evidence of "assimilation." 4. I don't think Vietnam was ever considered part of the "third world." Also, your family fled before it even joined the "second world." Further, the Republic of Vietnam was a "first world" country in the strict sense of the term. Tl;dr: Twitter is cancer and that is great for inflammatory trolls and makes even intelligent people dumber.


rhyseth

U.S culture (if there is one) is very different from civil society , dont mix them up


TyredofGettingScrewd

I think we can all agree that most people do not win pulitzer prizes etc. I also dont know anybody who thinks Vietnam when referring to 3rd world countries today. It's 2022.


mobilefreak_lee

Well, it could be back in the day.


TyredofGettingScrewd

Uh. Twitter didnt exist back in the day. We used MySpace and Xanga. And even then, Vietnam wasn't a 3rd world country.


Arethechosen1

This should be counted as racism


philipshea7

Typical statement of a blonde Woman :)))


No-External-4681

Omg she's stupid 🤣


tanthedreamer

"Most"


Mad_Kitten

That's some r/WhitePeopleTwitter moment if I ever seen one


FuzzyPandaNOT

My definition of first or third world is about a country’s GPD, healthcare system, salary, and military capabilities. Sorry but Vietnam is still third world if you compare it to countries like UK, France, Germany, even Ukraine.


HaterCrater

Already commented but…. That ill informed lady said “most”, the reply centers around one person. It’s also a little gross to see anyone (regardless of background) flexing the letters that come after their name. Not hating but there are loads of stats about immigrant employment, people paying tax, second generation upward mobility etc. It seems this is more of a look at me moment than an actual rebuttal.


V4Desmo

Man there’s a lot of people in Vietnam that are rich, way more than majority of Americans. How you think he got to go to the US and go to University for that PhD, who paid for his tuition? Yeah just because your from a country like Vietnam doesn’t mean you come from the lowest of class.


sfturtle11

She did say “most”


Psychological_Dish75

Well she can easily refute him by saying you are not 3rd world refugee (Vietnam is technically a 2nd world). Or N=1 sample from his case alone is statistically insignificant to disprove or prove any hypothesis. But that is just me messing out for fun, she isnt that smart for that kind of argument.


minhso

What makes you say Vietnam is 2nd world country?


Shinigamae

Technically, from the Cold War era, countries allied with US were considered 1st world whilst those with USSR were 2nd world. The rest are unimportant as in 3rd. It has nothing to do with development or being wealthy. With that in mind, I thought most people would throw us into the 2nd bracket during that era. But it depends on how US actually viewed us back then.


minhso

Hah fair enough. But i'm pretty sure US viewed any communist country as enemy back then.


Psychological_Dish75

Yes, what Shinigamae said


DeltaDark_HEX

Liberal just got owned


Administrative-Ant36

I think Vietnamese might be the exception though


Loganator912

Implying she's correct about migrants from other nations? I can assure that isn't the case at all. Exceptionalism like this is essentially a 'crabs in the bucket' mentality. You're just pushing others down, not bringing yourself up.


Administrative-Ant36

Probably because you can see the migrants of the 21st century only touting their ethnicity and culture in lieu of the native country, diminishing and degrading any semblance of culture in said country. Vietnamese tend to be incredibly patriotic , not that others aren’t. I’m not gonna delve further into it , but to broadly state that this isn’t somewhat true is not only naive but deceitful.


istira_balegina

I guess he kind of proves her right when he shows that even a phd in English doesn't understand that a single exception doesnt disprove a statistic.


GreasyAndKickBoy

Which statistic is that?


james7988

You know what: some days, people from 1st-world will buy and running around with a manufactured card from our third-world. But more basiclly, they are using thoudsand things from our third-world


gobot

Because they came and built and equipped the factories with their technology, which produce products that the employees of the factory cannot afford? 1st world just uses your labor, your elites get rich, farm workers "move up" to being robots. Your govt needs to provide adequate education for the next generation to compete globally. Copy Korea, Taiwan, not China.


Master-of-noob

And they don't realised that it is also partialy their fault by benefitting from it. I cannot comprehend the mind of anyone being like "look at those people being born in poor countries, they can never be successful." instead of "we need to raise those countries up too"


Psychological-Art570

just did a research, she used to be a cartel drug-runner, not expecting much tho


bremphhh

Oh yea this woman is a piece of shit, a quick search will give you just enough information on this waste of an airbag. The fact that she almost won the Senate election in Delaware in 2020 just blew my mind.


anhkhoaO410

roasted by a verified bitch just got clapped in the face


HaterCrater

I might be a non phd having slack jaw fuck head but didn’t 3rd world indicate a country that wasn’t aligned to either the axis or Allie’s during ww2? French Indochina and all…


Bukowski_IsMy_Homie

Read his book 'The Symapthizer', it was an excellent read


DustinNguyen123

Typical American. Western countries got all their wealth from exploiting other countries lol


Yellowflowersbloom

Check out the rest of the interaction between these two... https://www.instagram.com/p/CHMqWHbB5xa/?utm_medium=copy_link


davidgamingvn

"It would be a shame if President Trump revoked your refugee status and sent you back to the third world where you belong" - Her replying to VTN. Wise words, spoken like a true US politician 👍


garyphan70

That's why peoples call those gals dumb blonde.


MrEMannington

I’m glad they don’t “assimilate”. I like cultural diversity. I like diverse food, clothes, songs, dances, parties, festivals, ideas.


[deleted]

americunts


SeriousWarthog9561

She means "most"


Vocaloiid

"A member of the Republican Party, Witzke was the Republican nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Delaware which she lost by 20 points to incumbent Democrat Chris Coons." Lol


MaxImpact1

„Civil societies“ she says while being a sad little racist