The general usage of "third-world" has changed over time to be focused more on development than on whether a country was pro-USA or pro-Soviet.
If one were to hold to the original meaning of "third-world", then one would have to class Namibia and Angola as "first-world" countries while classing Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, and Finland as "third world". Something that clearly goes against the current general usage of the term.
They are better described as developing nations however I agree that people tend to understand that third world means this, rather than the political definition.
I wasn't aware of the original meaning. From Wikipedia[0]: "The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist Bloc. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on political and economic divisions."
I personally always thought "third world" had more or less the same meaning as "third estate". That is, the "commoners"; or the ones left out of the global elite; and I have yet to find anything that credibly proves that it doesn't come from there.
On the upside; that meaning is the one usually associated with it, in my experience.
Wow, that's really lame. It's like dividing middle school into the "cool kids" the "delinquents" and everyone else. If you're not part of a faction though you're a "third world" loner.
I just meant the characterization was lame. How do you like Finland being a 3rd world country given the negative connotations that have since been assigned to the term? You may just say "that doesn't fit" like I did when I learned that Finland is a 3rd world country.
If one were to hold to the original meaning of "third-world", then one would have to class Namibia and Angola as "first-world" countries while classing Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, and Finland as "third world". Something that clearly goes against the current general usage of the term.