His "no broken windows" governing philosophy was already expiring under its own weight.
Rudy literally cleaned up the city. It was Gotham in the '70s and the '80s.
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?
I think Americans do care, but we also know that there’s simply not much any one of us can individually do anything about it.
“There’s a huge differene between people who come here legally and people who don’t.”
I had an uncle who took the very expensive (for his father) week-long boat ride over from Italy at 16, only to be sent back because he had Pink Eye. Grandpa got to pay for 3 extra crossings due to that and did, how I don’t know, he was just a chef. Uncle John spoke Italian, French, German and English and was drafted and put in intelligence during WWII which became his career as a State Dept Spook. When the Prime Minister of Italy visited President Kennedy, Uncle John was the interpreter, complete with a photo in the Oval Office of him with both leaders. It was quite exciting.
the second world - a tour of "you don't wanna go there"
bad cattitude ^ | 3 May, 2025 | EL GATO MALO (The Bad Cat)
Posted on 5/5/2025, 10:33:06 AM by MtnClimber
Very informative article on how countries go from third world status to first world. And once there, they can easily devolve into a second world status.
‘waits in line’ is different than a person who pushes their way to the front.
Sorry to bust your bubble: Consistently for my 81 years most immigrants come here “illegally” and then apply for papers to stay here. That is because the immigration system is broken and nobody can agree on how to fix it. And many refuse to admit that it is broken.
Tourists come to the US..start work at a job ... and then apply for H1b.
Illegals come here, marry a legal, or have birthright children and then use that as reasons to apply to be here legally.
Immigrants come to Canada and obtain Canadian Citizenship. Then they go to work in the US. Canada is happy to take the middle man fee, knowing full well many of the immigrants they accept will live and work in the US and not in Canada.
Satyam scams are numerous. Multiple people working on one H1b. Non-working spouse sharing a H1b with a “cousin” who is working.
Many games to play. The problem is that nobody really wants to face all the different ways. If one way is made more difficult it just puts pressure on the less difficult way to expand.
‘waits in line’ is different than a person who pushes their way to the front.
Sorry to bust your bubble: Consistently for my 81 years most immigrants come here “illegally” and then apply for papers to stay here. That is because the immigration system is broken and nobody can agree on how to fix it. And many refuse to admit that it is broken.
Tourists come to the US..start work at a job ... and then apply for H1b.
Illegals come here, marry a legal, or have birthright children and then use that as reasons to apply to be here legally.
Immigrants come to Canada and obtain Canadian Citizenship. Then they go to work in the US. Canada is happy to take the middle man fee, knowing full well many of the immigrants they accept will live and work in the US and not in Canada.
Satyam scams are numerous. Multiple people working on one H1b. Non-working spouse sharing a H1b with a “cousin” who is working.
Many games to play. The problem is that nobody really wants to face all the different ways. If one way is made more difficult it just puts pressure on the less difficult way to expand.
“Why Don’t Americans Care More About Rising Disorder?”
As long as it’s confined to filthy democrat cities I couldn’t care less. Actually, it’s rather amusing!😎
Import the third world, become the third world.
________________________________________
Import the third world, become the SECOND world.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/explain-what-a-second-world-na-f06Ipju5Tu2uWSDot3Uy4g
The “Second World” Redefined (el gato malo’s Perspective)
According to the article by el gato malo, the idea of a Second World nation should be re-examined far beyond the Cold War context:
Not an “In-Between” Stage: Unlike popular belief, the “second world” is not a developmental midway between third and first world statuses.
Post-Prosperity Decline: It’s described as a decline after reaching first world status—a kind of societal or structural senescence where advanced systems fall into decay due to changes in values, trust, or competence.
Structural Trap: Second World conditions arise when formerly high-functioning, well-organized institutions and infrastructure—designed for a high-trust, high-competency society—persist while the population’s ability or willingness to sustain them deteriorates.
Key Features:
Failing or unreliable infrastructure (such as power grids or road networks)
Declining institutional trust and function
Regulation and bureaucracy that inhibit adaptation or repair
High costs with few of the old benefits (high prices, low productivity, crumbling systems)
Social systems—like welfare or regulation—becoming dysfunctional burdens
Out-migration of the most capable, and demographic decline
Example: Puerto Rico
The article uses current-day Puerto Rico as an example, describing rolling blackouts, regulatory choke points, labor shortages, and demographic collapse—signs that systems built for a first-world society become liabilities when social cohesion, trust, and competence erode.
All of this stuff is local.
I drove by the aging hippies on the way out of town today. They line up every Saturday, complaining since the Johnson administration. Then I went to a small town Polish Festival. Everyone is enjoying their plates and beers. They will be dancing into the night.
No disorder in my neck of the woods.
You KNOW that person voted for socialism? Perhaps they voted for the opposition?
I live in IL and sure as sh¡t did NOT vote for Pritzker. I’ve never voted for a socialist or democrat, yet here I am, stuck in a state run by them because I can’t afford to leave.
His "no broken windows" governing philosophy was already expiring under its own weight. There is a tipping point where law enforcement simply sinks under the weight of a muttlage populace. And everywhere outside of Wall Street and parts of midtown to the Park, NYC is essentially an extensive, expensive, multi-tentacled ghetto.
There are so, so many companies from the beginning of TrumpI that have retrenched to Boston, DFW, the Nash, and not one of those places has NYC's rotten apple core problems.
His "no broken windows" governing philosophy was already expiring under its own weight.
Rudy literally cleaned up the city. It was Gotham in the '70s and the '80s.
Yes, I remember that article very well.
I disagree...police and courts are an after-thought.
When we are taught in the home and childhood contacts a religious or ethical system, most of us accept and try to live in that framework. To be rebellious is to be raised Catholic and attend a Pentecostal church...or to be raised Methodist and attend a Presbyterian church.
A very small number rebel by leaving their upbringing and going aetheist, communist, etc. But they are very few.
2025 with Social Media raising our youth, the experience of the past is mostly irrelevant.
He did, yessir. And then 9/11 caused Shrub to bow to the slimes; walk hand-in-hand with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the hell-bound sob who funded the madrassas where Bin Laden had his pick of suicidal morons.
Shrub then damn near permitted the Flight 93 Memorial to become a mooselime shrine (a crescent moon of tree with the memorial placed asymmetrically right at the 'star'), until pushback from none other than FR caused National Parks to move the 'star' but maintain the crescent *spit*); and the reason why?
Because Tenet and his shitshow spawn Crapper convinced Shrub that if you give Mooses the belief that they have domain over a place, they won't destroy it.
Our national policy towards slime to this day is placation, and the instead is that it will lead to hand-to-hand combat when the balloon goes up, in our lifetime.
GREAT POST
I have both a question and a statement.
Where did you obtain the info in bolded black lettering?
Thanks for the encouraging update on decreasing crime where ICE is taking the battle to the streets, as I live not too far from DC.
Yes!
https://www.city-journal.org/article/third-worldism-entitlement-disorder-american-cities
For the comment in bold type...around third paragraph or so...
The bad that has happened can be undone just as it was done.
Did you notice how quickly Trump closed the border? Less than 6 months.
Reminds me of Margart Mead's "Growing Up in New Guinea" - she researched how the young in that culture - so free happy and giving could turn into the 'old' in that culture - people who are opposite... Turned out when the happy young married they were given massive wedding debt that took years to pay off and turned them into grouchy selfish old citizens. Muslim cultures 'over care' about family and "under care" about their fellow citizens. I believe it's a survival thing as many cultural choices are. You're observations are correct...
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