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  • Wmill [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Remember hearing once that america is a first world country if you're rich and a third world country if you're poor. Don't mean to trivialize what the other countries we topple go through but feels right some times.

    • burritofingers [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      What's honestly considered third world, besides not being colonized by the west? Countries that we, 'the west', have just fucked up and left stranded?

      • Wmill [they/them]
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        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Dying from lack of healthcare, water being contaminated with lead, heavy police repression, legal system that favors the rich, infrastructure in poorer areas left to crumble, and if you want a chance out you have to indebt yourself for decades or more for a degree maybe. Maybe this isn't the definition of third world but I remember people saying how a lot of companies go into poorer cities suck up the wealth and leave.

        • burritofingers [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          All that, besides healthcare and water, is our influence isn't it? Even the fact that they're considered countries now. Like we influenced and exploited them, offering only the worst parts of our society. Those same parts that are becoming more apparent here by the day, and the same reasons why I hate this country.

        • crispyhexagon [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          its definitely not the definition, but it is how its used colloquially.

          and it does describe the conditions of americans outside the ivory tower.

          • Wmill [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Been reading, very slowly and using the red menace episode to help digest, wretched of the earth. Some of the things have been rolling around in my head like how the experiences a lot of minorities in this country face seem to mirror the experiences of the colonized. I know that america is the biggest colonizer but it also does it at home. Fanon talks about that in order to colonize the colonialist has to other the colonized and take a way their humanity but have to prepare when they fight back to try to reaffirm their humanity. I think this is where BLM comes into place in trying to fight back against this system that dehumanizes them. Minorities in this country have faced state repression since the beginning of our history but are starting to receive attention. Sorry if I'm rambling a bit but might need some time to sort things out and finish reading before it fully sets in.

            • shitstorm [he/him]
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              4 years ago

              Exactly, black neighborhoods and cities in America have essentially the same problem as former colonies today: the residents don't own anything. Money is drained from communities and split among several corporations or small business tyrants.

              • Wmill [they/them]
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                4 years ago

                The book also talks about how some of the colonized will be elevated to a position of power that helps keep the current order. Thinking about black capitalism being presented as a solution to the income inequality present in these communities.

            • crispyhexagon [none/use name]
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              4 years ago

              like @shitstorm said, you are exactly right.

              the colonization of the black community transitioned over time from people being the wealth that was extracted from africa to an apartheid regime where the u.s repeatedly fights any attempt by the black community to coalesce, whether that be black wallstreet, black panthers, or black lives matter...

              so its an interesting case study of colonial mindset remaining even as the conditions of the colonization changes

    • MasterCombine [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Even a lot of third world countries value their own citizens more than the US does.

    • Not_irony [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      As someone that drove thru rural Virginia over the summer, I can believe the sentiment