[jhbadger]

The "free world" is pretty meaningless since the Cold War ended. It never really meant "free" anyway -- Pinochet's and Franco's regimes were as much a part of it as Western democracies. What it really meant was the "anti-Soviet world".

[nicolas_t]

Yes, the term "the free world" comes from the Cold War propaganda but it doesn't stop the fact that the US, as an economic powerhouse, has a disproportionate influence on the rest of the world and this is why I would want it to be worthy of the name "Leader of the Free World".

It's unfortunately not and I think that people repeatedly calling them that tends to legitimize the US actions.

[JBiserkov]

I see a browser extension potential here. Substitute Soviet with Russia/China and call it a day.

[mdemare]

That's nonsense. Spain under Franco wasn't considered part of the "free world". To a first approximation, it referred to countries in NATO, plus a few allied countries like Sweden and Japan.