elbucho

I give him points for creativity, at least.

Bümenschrapnel

What's the difference between a chickpea and a garbanzo bean?

It certainly would put a novel wrinkle into things.

Yeah, so was second world because of Russia or because of communism?

Err... yes. It was essentially a capitalist vs communist thing, but really it was more "US-aligned" versus "USSR-aligned", since the US and USSR were the two big superpowers with guns and nukes pointed at each other. First world meant "the US, and people who like the US", second world meant "The USSR and the people who like the USSR", and third world was everybody who wasn't aligned politically with either major player. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the phrase "second world" pretty much fell entirely out of use. I'm not sure why "first world" and "third world" ended up sticking around in the lexicon, but their meanings morphed to "rich countries" and "poor / developing countries", respectively.

My guess (and this is pure speculation) is that the terms stuck around because they were related to foreign policy. Because the foreign policy wonks were primed to think of the world in terms of blocs of allies or as spheres of influence from decades of the cold war, it's probable that they had gotten used to referring to their allies as "other first world nations", and to the countries they sought to influence as "third world nations". The Vietnam war, for example, was a proxy war fought against the USSR, where half of Vietnam was second-world-aligned, and the other half was first-world-aligned. Prior to those lines being drawn in the sand, it was a third world country. The same could also be said about Korea. Also, pretty much the entire continent of Africa was an ideological battleground between the US and the USSR, as both vied to woo, coerce, and force individual countries into their respective spheres of influence. Because the terms "first world" and "third world" were so frequently used as a matter of policy, it's easy to see how the use of those terms could persist even after the original definitions became obsolete.

As for why a numbering scheme was initially employed... it's unimportant; simply an easy way of distinguishing between teams. If the USSR had originated the concept, chances are they'd have put themselves as first world, with the US & affiliated nations as second world. Or they might have used letter designations instead of numbers. Or color coding. It doesn't really matter in the end.

You know? I didn't even really consider that, due to the fact that the original definitions pretty much lost their meanings with the fall of the USSR. However, since Putin's basically working to recreate it now, it seems like those definitions are relevant once again, so yeah - you're absolutely right.

Technically, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland are all 3rd world nations. At least, according to the original definition.

Edit: this isn't meant to counter the point made by the comic. I just think it's interesting.

I think that Putin realizes (and has for quite some time now) that if he were to end the war without a total Russian victory that it would be akin to signing his own death warrant. No amount of dead Russians will affect him, as he has no conscience to speak of. Unless Russia achieves total victory, he won't quit, and so more and more people will be fed into the meat grinder. He will beg, borrow, and steal whatever he can to push back his inevitable fate as long as possible.

800,000 Russians. Why the fuck do I care more about the plight of the average Russian citizen than the president of Russia does?

Those are just the bodies they were able to recover.

For a deeper gut punch, remember that in "Heart of Gold", Zoe tells Wash that she wants to have a baby with him, and she won't brook any of his lame excuses, like "the universe is too dangerous for kids". It's possible that if there was ever a second movie or a continuation of the series, they'd say that Zoe did get pregnant just before all of the shit went down, but with it being abandoned IP, we have to guess. So what do you think? Is there a mini Wash in Zoe's future?

It's the main ingredient in tama-konyaku, which interestingly enough... screams when you cook it.