WTF is a third-worldist?

[TheRedAnarchist23]

I recently heard the term, and, because I had no idea about what it was, i asked, but nobody took the time to answer.

WTF is a third-worldist?

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Third-worldism is the ridiculous idea that only people from the third-world are able to make a revolution because they are exploited while the proletariat in the first-world is decadent and doesn't want change.

It's ridiculously racist and also lacks analysis of capitalism on its contradictions.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

They are Marxists who believe there is a split between the working class in the third world and those in the first world. Depending on the organization, they may believe that revolution is no longer possible in the first world or even that the first world has no proletariat at all with the exception of some ethnic minorities or prisoners forced to perform labor.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

And why are they discriminted here on revleft?

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

And why are they discriminted here on revleft?

Because they're racist.

[Questionable]

They're a sub-tendency of Maoism that believes a certain layer of the working class (Typically white Americans but sometimes more specific) are no longer exploited by capitalism and are in fact being paid with super-profits derived from imperialism, thus making their existence antagonistic to the third-world working class because their wages are supposedly collected from them. There's also some stuff about how low prices make people in the Western countries more willing to go along with imperialism.

Your mileage may vary. I've encountered some batshit crazy ones who just wanted an excuse to hate white, but I've also encountered some pretty normal ones who just have a different way of viewing things (however inaccurate it may be).

[TheRedAnarchist23]

Those guys have obviously never been to Portugal...

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Most of them haven't been anywhere, they tend to be white, american and suffering from autism for the most part. I've never heard any of the groups engaged in struggle in Asia or south America express hostile feelings towards workers in the first world the way third-worldists do.

[Questionable]

Most of them haven't been anywhere, they tend to be white, american and suffering from autism for the most part. I've never heard any of the groups engaged in struggle in Asia or south America express hostile feelings towards workers in the first world the way third-worldists do.

Oh yeah, there's this. MIM, the first significant Maoist party to hold the line that most first-world workers were parasite, was started at Harvard and consisted of students.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Most of them haven't been anywhere, they tend to be white, american and suffering from autism for the most part. I've never heard any of the groups engaged in struggle in Asia or south America express hostile feelings towards workers in the first world the way third-worldists do.

I hate to be that guy, but saying that a tendency suffers from autism is a bit ablest. You probably didn't mean it that way, but for future reference you might want to avoid using rhetoric like that. Again I am sorry for being annoying

[Comrade #138672]

I hate to be that guy, but saying that a tendency suffers from autism is a bit ablest. You probably didn't mean it that way, but for future reference you might want to avoid using rhetoric like that. Again I am sorry for being annoyingNo. You are not annoying. You are correct. I myself am diagnosed with autism and always think it is offensive when people use it as a derogatory term to insult others. I can't help but feel insulted myself as well.

[Let's Get Free]

They're people who insist that all attempts at revolutionary activity in America and the West are pointless because “there’s no real working class in the first-world”.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

No. You are not annoying. You are correct. I myself am diagnosed with autism and always think it is offensive when people use it as a derogatory term to insult others. I can't help but feel insulted myself as well.

Thank you, it is always good to accept criticism when it is valid, after all criticism is the only way to know what we are doing wrong. We all make mistakes, and feel free to call me out whenever I am in the wrong. Even recently I admit that I made an offensive misrepresentation of 9MM's position in another thread that I deserve to be criticized for.

[l'Enfermé]

Hahahah you assholes I'm one of the few proletarians in the West since I'm not white. BOW TO ME.

But yeah Maoist Third-Wordlist are white college students in America that complain how the only proletarians are non-white third worlders. Everyone else is an imperialist and exploits third worlders.

[Althusser]

There's also some stuff about how low prices make people in the Western countries more willing to go along with imperialism.


Is this untrue?

[Thirsty Crow]

Is this untrue?
The point is not to assess the veracity of isolated statements such as this one but to flesh out the broader political and theoretical perspective.

But to consider the statement. It lays the blame on the workers' movement which fought for and conquered social gains (at a cost, to be sure, as the institutions of the welfare state are not neutral means of ellevating the living and working conditions of workers) which now, effectively, render the whole of the working class reactionary. You can see where this leads - to a repudiation of class struggle in core capitalist regions as a fight for privilege and further participation in the oppression and exploitation of the periphery.

Thus a would be revolutionary current perpetuates - or would if it gained traction - divisions among the class taken as a global class of wage workers. But the picture is more complex - there is a whole array of factors which need to be taken into consideration when dealing with a low level of militancy and the lack of revolutionary perspectives. Both in the core and in the periphery.

Apart from that, this whole thing is based on some absurd theoretical tricks. Such as the one that workers are not exploited in the West (they presumably obtain all, or even more than the whole of the value they produced but profits are realized through direct foreign investment and transnational exploitation), or that the working class as a whole - apart from the oppressed national/ethnic or racial minorities - becomes part of the labour aristocracy, which becomes a meaningless term, miles apart from the use it was put in, for instance, Pannekoek who employed it in relation to the bureaucratic layer of the workers' organizations - parties and unions.

[Questionable]

Is this untrue?

What LinksRadikal said was true, but I also want to add that imperialism does not correspond with low prices. The bourgeoisie do not engage in imperialism for the sake of "their" proletariat, or because the third-world workers are somehow more productive and are needed to prop up the parasitic first-world workers, but because the weakness of the younger states, their developing economies, and their inexperienced working class makes it more fertile ground for pursuing corporate interests.

It's true that third-world workers greatly increase the profit margin because companies can pay them dirt wages and sell them in the US for much higher prices, but our own working-class is also exploited and buys these products with the bourgeoisie pocketing all the cash.

[maskerade]

it's a bad internet joke that get's people here riled up. they're not to be taken seriously. at all.

[Goblin]

I recently heard the term, and, because I had no idea about what it was, i asked, but nobody took the time to answer.

WTF is a third-worldist?
Douchebags who claim that theres no working class in the first world.
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2620367193/eebkstbshf0mm3iaz29z.jpeg

[Sasha]

one of the many forms of white western leftist orientalism

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I hate to be that guy, but saying that a tendency suffers from autism is a bit ablest. You probably didn't mean it that way, but for future reference you might want to avoid using rhetoric like that. Again I am sorry for being annoying

You're right, I did not intend to make light of autism. However, I have met three third-worldists and all three claimed to have aspergers. This plus reading their material has led me to believe that the ideology primarily attracts individuals on the autism spectrum and possibly people suffering from anxiety disorders. This is anecdotal and should not have been included in the post though.

Apologies to wecandobetter and anyone else.

[maskerade]

You're right, I did not intend to make light of autism. However, I have met three third-worldists and all three claimed to have aspergers. This plus reading their material has led me to believe that the ideology primarily attracts individuals on the autism spectrum and possibly people suffering from anxiety disorders. This is anecdotal and should not have been included in the post though.

Apologies to wecandobetter and anyone else.

I realize you didn't mean it like this, so as a caveat i'd like to say that this is a general point and not aimed at you in particular, but the words 'autism spectrum' and 'aspergers' can be replaced with literally any other qualifier and lead to some pretty reactionary conclusions. people of all colors and all stripes can have batshit crazy ideas like those expressed by adherents of third-worldism!

[Questionable]

You're right, I did not intend to make light of autism. However, I have met three third-worldists and all three claimed to have aspergers. This plus reading their material has led me to believe that the ideology primarily attracts individuals on the autism spectrum and possibly people suffering from anxiety disorders. This is anecdotal and should not have been included in the post though.

Apologies to wecandobetter and anyone else.

Actually Henry Park suffered from mental illness later in his life when the crazier stuff started to come out. Before his death he blamed the failure of third-worldism to enter the mainstream on Revleft, and called Revleft "Bu$h's *****es" or something like that.