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Posted on 07/19/2025 8:12:17 AM PDT by MtnClimber
A growing culture of Third Worldism—the belief that you’re entitled to use public spaces without any responsibility to care for them—is corroding civic life in cities.
Immigrants from poor countries like my own, Venezuela, often joke that Americans complain too much about “First World problems.” Back home, we don’t worry about microaggressions; we’re too busy figuring out how to put food on the table or stay safe from crime and government censorship.
But here’s the irony: increasingly, Americans aren’t complaining enough about Third World problems. Trash-strewn streets, loud music in public, brazen shoplifting, rising disorder, and a general decline in civility are becoming common in major U.S. cities. In New York, the problem is hard to miss.
Lately, even moderate liberals have joined conservatives in voicing concern. The far Left, in turn, shrugs and says, “Move to the suburbs”—as if this is just how cities are supposed to be.
They’re not. In fact, in Venezuela, we have a name for this disorder-justifying mindset: Third Worldism. It’s not about race, nationality, or even poverty. Third Worldism is the belief that you’re entitled to use public spaces without any responsibility to care for them. It’s the idea that you can do whatever you want, no matter how it affects others—littering without shame, blasting music at fellow citizens, shoplifting, jumping turnstiles, refusing to pay the bus fare, defacing property, and ignoring rules meant to keep the commons usable for everyone.
The attitude behind these behaviors marks the true dividing line between the First and Third World mindset. It isn’t wealth alone that keeps cities livable. It’s culture: the rule of law, cleanliness, safety, and a shared civic compact. When residents uphold these norms, urban cores thrive as centers of prosperity and genuine diversity. When the compact breaks down, the result is social collapse and segregation.
I’ve been struck by how this compact has broken down in New York City. Around the world, Gotham is seen as the ultimate symbol of First World success. Yes, it’s crowded and messy in the way big cities are—but it has worked. Until recently, most people followed the rules well enough to make life functional for the millions who share these tight spaces. The subway, the streets, and the parks belonged to everyone because there were legal and unspoken limits on how to use them.
Today, acknowledgment of those limits is waning. Lawmakers effectively decriminalized shoplifting, and retailers have closed down stores or locked up products behind glass in response. Streets and subways have become dirtier and more dangerous. Panhandling and aggressive behavior go unchecked. Neighborhoods are forced to accept encampments or unsafe shelters. Heroes who save strangers in public transit, like Daniel Penny, face bogus charges while criminals go free.
I remember seeing Columbia University students jump the turnstiles at the 116th Street subway station. They did it not because they were poor but because they were entitled, and because it was socially acceptable. The one time I politely stood up to someone violating social customs on the subway—a middle-aged woman playing loud videos on her phone—she threatened to kill me.
Though an immigrant myself, I’ll admit it: the recent migrant crisis has made these problems worse. Not all immigrants are the same. Before the Biden administration’s border surge, Venezuelans arriving here were mostly middle-class professionals escaping socialist devastation. They saved money, planned their moves carefully, and observed the cultural norms that make living in a First World society possible.
But the recent wave of migrants—most arriving illegally—lacked that same preparation or willingness to assimilate. I’ve seen this difference firsthand in New York City shelters, where groups of young men from Venezuela fight among themselves. It pains me to say it about my compatriots, but they’re importing the same social habits that helped wreck our native country.
The point is not to oppose immigration but to demand more selective immigration policies and stronger enforcement of civic norms, for newcomers and native-born Americans alike. After all, many of the worst violations of public order are committed not by immigrants but by native-born citizens.
Third Worldism thrives when rules aren’t enforced—when stealing isn’t punished, streets aren’t cleaned, litterers aren’t fined, and no one says “stop.” To allow these behaviors isn’t compassion. The people who suffer most when public order breaks down are the poorest residents who can’t afford to move away, the small business owners whose businesses die, and the transit riders who must endure harassment and unsafe situations because they can’t afford to own a vehicle.
If America wants to remain a First World country, it must take seriously the habits and values that make “First World problems” possible in the first place. We should aspire to live in a society where people’s biggest complaints are petty and privileged—because that means that their basic needs are being met. To get there, we must reject Third Worldism.
That means governments must enforce public rules, and so must we. It means restoring consequences, legal and social, for antisocial behavior. It means expecting newcomers to adopt long-established American norms, not reshape them for the worse. And it means rejecting the cultural relativism that excuses bad behavior in the name of empathy or diversity.
I came to America for the rule of law, safety, freedom, and opportunity. If those disappear, what’s left to distinguish us from the places that people like me fled?
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No, all immigrants are not the same.
The problem is that the open border advocates don’t want immigrants vetted. They want all 8.5 billion people to be able to come to America if they so wish.
Import the third world, become the third world.
Too many Americans don’t care about some things because it doesn’t affect them personally. When something affects them in a negative way, some wake up....a little. They can’t see the big picture.
That’s because they’re either willfully or unwillingly ignorant.
That’s how much the left hates America.
Americans have adjusted to the new normal.
Acting white is out.
Because the people who advocate for open borders are doing strictly for money or political reasons.
I can't believe the Dems are questioning dumping Colbert as being a political move.....cuz that acknowledges him as being one of the Dem's goons.
A law-and-order candidate might do really well. Even in California.
I truly believe that nothing will ever be done about this. Any attempt to do anything is “racist.” So we get used to it. We put bars up on our windows. We stop going out at night. We step over the homeless people on the sidewalk. We get used to asking store employees to unlock stuff for us, or we just order from Amazon instead...and hope a porch pirate doesn’t steal the package before we can get to it.
Those with money will keep fleeing to neighborhoods where it’s not happening yet. Again and again if necessary. Those without money will just suffer and put up with it. If we were going to “do anything about” this, we would have done it long ago, before things got this bad.
Of course, someday there will be no place left for those with money to flee. But by then it will be too late.
I saw all this happen to my home city of Los Angeles. Nobody “did anything” about it but flee. We have turned into a country of fleeing people. The criminals, the lowlifes, the illegals, they all have more rights than Americans.
God help us is all I can say.
You voted for socialism, so move back to your “like my own” a deal with what you created.
Easier just to get out and leave the city to the savages - which has happened all across the U.S.
Any complaints are instantly slapped down with screams of racism, xenophobia and White Supremacism.
Who needs that? The government is on their side and supports them against you - as they destroy our schools, parks and living spaces.
There will be a mass exodus from New York City after Madman Momdani is elected and starts implementing his Communist policies - including by the very ones who supported him.
Re: South Africa. Plenty who welcomed the ANC fled when they took power.
Most Americans are civilized, polite and kind, they have jobs, kids and homes that need to be taken care of, they trust the police and politicians to do the right thing and deal with the animals that look to destroy this country. Some day that trust will be eroded to the point that nice people will be forced to take matters into their own hands.
WE care but out ‘representatives’ don’t
WE care but out ‘representatives’ don’t
Good old “Creeping Socialism”: creeping crime, creeping drug use, fomented by liberal policies. Nobody has mentioned the old saw about “frog in the slowly boiling water” but that seems to be what’s happening.
https://www.mwkworks.com/onsheepwolvesandsheepdogs.html
The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.
Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.”
.......
Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, “Thank God I wasn’t on one of those planes.” The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, “Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference.” When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.
There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population. There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.
Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I’m proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.
Liberal white women. Democrats, public education, and trash immigrant culture.
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