• @Semjaza
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    5 hours ago

    I realise you were just offering a hueristic, but Ironically all of the three countries you listed were Second World nations. (I’ve also never heard Eastern used in a similar way to Western in the way you used it at the end there before.)

    Australia isn’t Western then, but Romania is?

    • @[email protected]
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      24 hours ago

      That’s because east-west is not based on the region, it’s based on cultural aspects, along with a few other things like how people communicate. This is why Australia is western as it has a western culture. So, the whole cold war NATO thing is not 100% accurate, but defining first, second, and third world is since those are defined by political ideologies.

      • @Semjaza
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        4 hours ago

        Well yes, First (Cold War era capitalists), Second (Communist, Marxist, and Maoist nations), and Third World (non-aligned and all the rest of them) are all clearly defined.

        Western is more nebulous, which is why I like to push back at it. Each person’s idea of “Western” tends to be a little different.

        If we’re taking the cultural root then Brazil, Israel and Lebanon make a nice test cases.

        Edit: oh, you’re making the case that Western = First World Nations. That’s a fair and valid short cut, with Japan/South Korea/RoC, and various oost-Communist states in Europe.