Third World
Article
Third World is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 07, 2024 and July 15, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “very attractive to Third World masses”; “When Third World immigrants move to the US”. It most often appears alongside America, US, Aboriginal.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: May 07, 2024
- Last seen: July 15, 2025
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- America (2 shared issues)
-
- US (2 shared issues)
-
- Aboriginal (1 shared issues)
-
- Aboriginal Australia (1 shared issues)
-
- Aboriginal society (1 shared issues)
-
- Aborigine (1 shared issues)
-
- Aborigines (1 shared issues)
-
- Aborigines of Australia (1 shared issues)
-
- affirmative action (1 shared issues)
-
- Africa (1 shared issues)
-
- African National Congress (1 shared issues)
-
- African-Americans (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
To me, it seems like the reason for why civil rights legislation, including affirmative action, has been enacted and are maintained in the US have at least at much to do with external as with internal policy. The original context for the enactment of the CRA and all the legislation meant to make racial equality not just a theory but an actuality was America's ideological content with the Soviet Union, a country that could lay a credible claim to an antiracist practice that made it very attractive to Third World masses and First World intellectuals; since it was also known that the equitable treatment of African-Americans was one of the main areas where United States had, to put it mildly, failed, it was also imperative for the US to show that it was working to fix it.
But maybe it should feel more mysterious. When Third World immigrants move to the US, they’re usually pretty happy with their decision. They might not assimilate completely, but they’re often able to hold down jobs or at least avoid spiraling into alcoholism and suicide. But when a people gets colonized - after the bad part with the conquest and land theft and oppression, once they’re granted citizenship and the settlers feel vaguely apologetic - doesn’t it end up kind of like being an immigrant into a First World country? In fact, isn’t it strictly superior? Instead of dodging ICE goons, you get full citizenship, access to the welfare system, maybe some affirmative action. You don’t even have to abandon your family or leave your ancestral village.