There are many topics worth discussing beyond reading, so I simply call it a “Discussion Post.” Here are my observations, questions, and thoughts about Afterburner. Welcome everyone to leave comments, suggestions, and critiques!
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By the way, through which channels do everyone follow current news? I am now very isolated in information, and friends around me also think the world is generally peaceful. Maybe this is the result of lacking reliable news sources. I usually only see some news on Bilibili, so I definitely don’t know how many hands the news has passed through.
If you don’t use a VPN, you can watch Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao by directly entering the website www.zaobao.com. Media outlets that are close to official sources, like The Paper (澎湃新闻), also have some reports on social news, such as reporting on incidents in certain places, but they do so in a way that glosses over problems or reports happy news about funerals.
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There are quite a few news articles in Lianhe Zaobao, and some domestic news platforms are also viewable.
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You can check out liberal media like Phoenix and NetEase, where you might find unexpected gains, as they often reveal some scandals of the Chinese Communist Party.
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On Bilibili, among the news that can relatively see some new messages, UP: Xiao Dai Morning Reading, Speed of Light Observation Station, Information Gap, What Happens When You Wake Up
Based on this trend, it seems they might go bankrupt. My mother’s hometown is a coastal city that used to heavily engage in marine aquaculture, but many breeders went bankrupt due to increasing environmental destruction by Nazis and Nazi plundering of colonial marine resources. The damage in your area also looks quite serious.
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Comprehensive Websites: Today’s Hot List
International News: Lianhe Zaobao, Kyodo News, Yonhap News Agency, Global Times, Al Jazeera, Voice of America
Domestic News: Weibo, Baidu Hot Search, Gonglao Net, Yesterday, The Paper
Reference Websites: Sing Tao Daily
Huxiu, The Paper, NetEase
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In fact, it’s not necessarily the result of lacking news channels, for example, the previous Meida Expressway collapse incident (Meida Expressway Collapse). If you don’t analyze the news or study the content inside, you might easily accept the narrative that the CCP claims the collapse was “caused by multiple rounds of heavy rainfall at the site, which made the underground water flow and accumulation difficult to drain, leading to continuous gathering of underground water,” followed by various construction companies’ inaction. But in reality, it is precisely the inaction of these construction companies that mainly caused the poor quality of the project and ultimately led to the disaster. Meanwhile, the CCP’s investigation report only abstractly mentions the inaction of various construction companies without explaining why these companies did not act—actually, it is because the various levels of bureaucratic monopolized bourgeoisie within the CCP are extremely corrupt, always trying to funnel construction funds into their own pockets, which causes problems during construction. So, ultimately, it is a problem of the entire capitalist system. These analyses can also be inferred from reports by various media outlets controlled by the CCP, as well as official reports issued by Xinhua News Agency and government agencies. But if you do not study Marxism and do not analyze the news, you might believe the CCP’s narrative, thinking this was a “natural disaster,” with the main cause being a natural calamity, and thus feel that even such a major incident as the Meida Expressway collapse, which killed 52 people, does not indicate any major issues with CCP society—“the world is generally peaceful.”
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You can check out “Yesterday” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@YesterdayBigcat
It features activities of the Chinese people (although it includes a small amount of private bourgeoisie) resisting the CCP government.
In issue 24, there is also the Pucheng incident. I was very surprised when I saw it before—people directly fought back against the riot police sent to suppress them, causing them to flee in disgrace.
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Watched the latest episode, hitting the police well done!
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Why is there no Free Asia (
I returned to my rural hometown for the New Year, a fishing village nestled between hills and the coast, and found that people of my age group had not stayed in the village. So what productive activities are there in the village? It’s marine aquaculture. Currently, marine aquaculture dominates the village’s economy, and the small fragmented farmland of each household basically only grows side crops like peanuts, cabbage, and radishes, without any staple grains. The people engaged in aquaculture are not from the village, so I can only observe them and get secondhand information from relatives. Plus, due to the small-scale nature of their production, I haven’t found a way to get inside and take a closer look. There’s no way to ask about the specific business situation or profits.
At present, they produce on a family basis and may hire one or two workers. The production centers are large open-air aquaculture ponds and two or three small ponds inside big greenhouses, all surrounded by walls. The main products are sea cucumbers or shrimp, depending on the market purchase price.
There used to be a large sandy beach in the village, but after the coast was contracted out, the sand was heavily excavated and mostly sold to construction sites as building material. Then, open-air ponds were built near the original beach, and the remaining area turned into reefs and muddy tidal flats. These events happened around the late 1990s (before I was born), and I guess the sand was exchanged for the initial capital of the aquaculturists.
These ponds rely on the tide to bring in water at high tide and drain at low tide, so their location can only be between the high and low tide lines, allowing only one row along a coastline. They are also affected by the climate; during last year’s dry season, the water in the ponds evaporated and concentrated, causing salt and temperature levels to become too high, resulting in total crop failure. This industry once had very high profit margins, and some aquaculturists built two-story houses; later, profits sharply declined, and half-built houses were abandoned.
I don’t know how rural industries are elsewhere. From what I see here, these small aquaculture proprietors seem unlikely to merge with other small proprietors and become large capitalists, since the profit margins in this industry have not changed significantly for a long time. I see them as analogous to wealthy peasants, owning relatively more means of production but unable to expand their production.
I wonder what the future holds for rural areas—will industrial capital enter these labor-drained villages, or will it buy out these small proprietors?
Did middle-aged people also go out to work?
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Yes, everyone has gone out. Not far away, there is a state-owned shipyard, and some work there as temporary workers to supplement their income. Some families have wives working as workers, while husbands continue to be fishermen.
I inserted a picture related to the topic I gave you, so that the post looks better on the homepage with an image. Moreover, the important thing is not where to find the news, but how to analyze it.
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[Reading Notes 01] “Outline of Marxist Philosophy” - Dialectics in Ancient Philosophy
When it comes to Thales’ philosophical germination of “water produces all things, and all things return to water” and Heraclitus’ view that “the world is a fire,” these two are often presented side by side in some materials.
At the same time, I have seen another saying that considers Heraclitus’ later fire doctrine to be more sophisticated. The image of water is determined by the container, that is, by external contradictions; but the shape of fire is decided by itself. Heraclitus used the description “burning at certain degrees, extinguishing at certain degrees” to illustrate how internal contradictions shape their own image, making it more advanced.
Taking a bonfire as an example: air enters from below, is heated, and leaves from above. The airflow continuously blows out gaseous combustible substances like carbon monoxide produced on the surface of the wood, mixing into gases to form a combustible mixture. Then, the combustible gases rise and burn, emitting light, until they are exhausted and extinguished. Every tiny gas bubble burns at certain degrees and extinguishes at certain degrees. The bubbles move one after another, forming the image of flames. Whether in a fire pit, a stove, or a match head, this process makes fire appear as fire, rather than being shaped by the container like water.
It can be said that Heraclitus used the opposition of burning and extinguishing to describe the internal contradictions of fire and vividly explained how internal contradictions can play a dominant role, making his view more advanced than Thales’.
The “Outline of Marxist Philosophy” also mentions Heraclitus’ superiority over Thales in understanding the struggle of opposites, but it is derived from direct quotations such as “It should be known that war is universal, justice is struggle, everything arises through struggle and necessity,” and “cold becomes hot, hot becomes cold, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet.” Perhaps adding this comparison here would help readers better understand dialectics.
However, I have some concerns — I encountered this view last year in the lecture notes of a teacher from a secondary teacher training college. But if only this point is highlighted, it makes sense — at least it convinced me. Therefore, I would like to ask everyone to help me review it.
I think it’s too far-fetched to say that the image of fire is decided by oneself, and therefore it is an internal contradiction that determines it, or that it is higher than water; this is complete nonsense. Fire itself is not a substance, but a phenomenon of material movement, a process in which objects rapidly release heat during oxidation-reduction reactions. Saying that the shape of water is determined by the container is an external contradiction, so wouldn’t that mean the size and shape of fire can also be said to be determined by combustible materials and oxidants?
The brilliance of Heraclitus lies in his recognition of dialectics, understanding that the opposing sides are in constant struggle and transformation.
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Furthermore, what is the shape of water? The law of contradiction should be discussed within the specific process of particular things and their specific movements.
Is the water in the cup not a liquid? Does it become a solid or a gas? Does the cup, by holding the water, change the physical or chemical properties of the water itself? If it does not change, then what does it mean that external contradiction determines the self? And what is this external contradiction a contradiction between? Such examples are completely nonsensical, not like the words spoken by someone studying philosophy, especially not like Marxist philosophy. People studying Marxist philosophy have basic logic, know how to clearly define concepts, and know to express their meaning clearly when speaking.
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This kind of analogy is really too vulgar and far-fetched. If we follow this line of reasoning, I might as well talk about the shape of water — which has no shape, it is impermanent, and this further demonstrates its flexibility. Moreover, it can turn into gas and ice, which is still due to the internal contradictions within water that cause these changes.
Over 2000 years ago, Mozi said that different kinds are not comparable. How can we casually compare the products of social movements — philosophy and physical or chemical movements? Philosophy is a systematic and theoretical worldview, a discipline that studies the general laws of the world. From this perspective, Heraclitus was more advanced because he recognized dialectics, understood that the world is an eternal, restless fire in constant change, recognized that all things contain opposites, which are unified, and that the history of development of things is a process of transformation between opposites. He understood that the root of all movement and change lies in the struggle of internal opposites within things. This undoubtedly brings us closer to the reality of the world, just as Engels said: “When we thoughtfully examine nature, human history, or our own mental activities, what first appears before our eyes is a picture woven from countless connections and interactions, where nothing is static or unchanging, but everything is in motion, change, creation, and disappearance. This primitive, simple yet essentially correct worldview is that of ancient Greek philosophy, and it was first clearly articulated by Heraclitus.”
From the perspective of the origin of philosophy, Heraclitus was a representative of the ideological struggle of the artisan and commercial slave owners against the aristocratic clan of Ephesus at that time. His materialist and dialectical philosophical ideas were also formed from the intense class struggle and rapid social upheaval of that period, standing on the progressive side sympathetic to the artisan and commercial slave owners.
I believe that if one wants to study a science, one should deeply understand its content, grasp the objects of its study, and the process of development, rather than forcibly comparing superficial appearances that seem to be related. This is a common flaw among many “scientific researchers” today, but such a research approach actually makes it impossible to produce any real science.
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This is the kind of person I mentioned who, holding what appears to be a valid form, uses it to deceive others — in reality, they do not understand philosophy at all; they are merely playing with philosophy. If you want to look at European philosophy, you can examine the history of European philosophy during the socialist period, especially during the Cultural Revolution. As supplementary material for the overview section.
European Philosophy History Draft – 1972 – Peking University Department of Philosophy – b63700f398943d2517d958a496c222fc – Anna’s Archive.pdf (3.7 MB)
European Philosophy History Draft – 1972 – Peking University Department of Philosophy – 2482acbe3720ace0c89a9e1f22ec163b – Anna’s Archive.pdf (4.5 MB)
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