>>7639734
It's kind of like the terms "first world" and "third world" - did you ever wonder why there wasn't a "second world"? There actually was Second World countries... All the Communist countries. First World Countries were Capitalist Democracy's that followed the American Dogma, and Third world countries did neither and went there own way (to worse results then the previous two).
Over time, it's completely lost it's meaning as it's come to refer to the wealth and prosperity of the first world countries, and the failure to achieve these things in the third world countries.
To your point about the term 'westerner', or rather 'western countries', it mostly just refers to philosophical beliefs, culture, alliances, race, etc. these days - so yes, Australia, America, Europe, Canada, New Zealand are all western countries, while South America is arguably not (though parts of it arguably are, too).
I think the original term was just used for Europe, again, regarding communism and the countries it had and hadn't influenced (East and West Germany, for example), though I may be wrong on that.
