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lawleon · 4 years

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An Analysis of Touhou - Cheating Detective Satori

What We Know So Far and Some Minor Speculation

If you haven't read the manga yet, I would encourage you to do so before reading this post as I will be writing about and speculating on all currently released chapters. Speculation is half the fun of a monthly mystery series like this and I feel like there’s enough meat available now to finally start talking about it so don’t spoil yourselves here and read it first. Chapter 7 came out today and the whole series can be found here.

So, a vengeful spirit huh? It feels like this type of ghost has been brought up quite regularly in Touhou ever since the geyser opened up a pathway to Former Hell during the events of Subterranean Animism. So far in windows canon their only confirmed appearance has been their use in Rin's spellcards, but they've been spoken or written about about in most print works by characters like Kasen and Akyuu who are some of our best in universe information sources. Vengeful spirits are ghosts that are capable of possessing others. While this trait isn't particularly harmful to humans, it can be fatal or quite disastrous to youkai if it causes them to take actions that go against how they are perceived by humans. However, observing the actions of the antagonist of Cheating Detective Satori leads me to believe that this vengeful spirit has no desire to do any lasting harm to those who she possesses. Thus far this vengeful spirit only seems interested in robbing the energy from some rather high profile targets, but her true motive or grudge remains to be discovered.

TIMELINE Let's take a look at the timeline in regards to the true culprit thus far:

(A known vengeful spirit escapes form Former Hell) (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 4) The vengeful spirit finds its way into Marisa and then subsequently Marisa brings it into the SDM* (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 17) (The vengeful spirit moves into Sakuya) (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 5) The possessed Sakuya makes coffee for Patchouli, Patchouli drinks the coffee and is subsequently possessed and drained of energy by the vengeful spirit (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 5) The possessed Patchouli comes to and finds an opportunity to tamper with Meiling's tea set (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 2) Meiling made some tea for herself which allowed the vengeful spirit to swap from Patchouli to Meiling and drain her of energy (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 3) (Marisa is the second individual to find the unconscious Meiling, this allows the vengeful spirit to possess Marisa and escape) (Completely inferred) The possessed Marisa makes her way to Hakugyokurou bearing a gift (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 14) (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 16) The possessed Marisa uses this alcoholic present to swap from Marisa to Yuyuko and drain her of energy (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 16)

DIVERGENCE PATH A - 90% (The vengeful spirit repossesses Marisa and makes it's way out of the Netherworld) (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 17) The possessed Marisa flees into the Forest of Magic when Satori arrives at the Hakurei Shrine (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 15) Satori senses the vengeful spirit hiding within the Forest of Magic (CDS Chap. 7, Pg. 13) Arriving at Alice's house, the spirit finds a way to have Alice drink tea so that the vengeful spirit can drain Alice of her energy (CDS Chap. 7, Pg. 16 & 17)

PATH B - 10% The vengeful spirit flees into the greater Netherworld and hides among the other spirits (CDS Chap. 7, Pg. 9) Yukari uses her shikigami, Ran and Chen, to locate and surround the vengeful spirit (CDS Chap. 7, Pg. 10)

* Speculation by Satori () Inferred events

I am placing more weight onto PATH A due to most these events being said, or learned via Satori's ability. Events in PATH B are coming from Team Yukari, and thus could be the result of inaccurate instructions issued to her shikigami.

To note, I have tried to back up the events in the timeline with statements from Satori herself, or learned via Satori's power. Thus far Marisa(the main vessel for the vengeful spirit) and Satori have yet to be together in the same room, when this finally occurs I assume that a large amount of information will be revealed.

FINDINGS In regards to the vengeful spirit there are three critical things we've learned. A) When possessing a youkai the vengeful spirit must do so via liquid ingestion (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 7) B) The vengeful spirit can leave it's current target at anytime (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 12) C) The vengeful spirit can hide within humans without controlling them (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 17)

ASSUMPTIONS One thing that we are being led to believe, but have yet to be shown directly, is that the vengeful spirit can possess humans without using a liquid medium. The assumed possession of Marisa initially, the assumed swap from Marisa to Sakuya, and the assumed swap from Meiling back into Marisa are not shown. (Once again, Marisa is involved in all three of these assumed events.) Due to the harmful nature of vengeful spirits towards youkai a condition needs to be met to circumvent a possible natural defense. A human isn't in danger of having their existence disturbed in the same way a youkai would be, so the defense might not be present in humans.

NOTES AND SPECULATIONS First, if you weren’t already aware, Satori’s title in both Subterranean Animism and Symposium of Post-mysticism is “The Girl Even the Vengeful Spirits Fear“ so it looks like she’s going to finally show us how she got that title.

I originally wanted to write some analysis of CDS framed around the idea of ZUN using the fanon interpretation of Meiling being lazy as a massive misdirection in the first arc. Meiling in canon isn't just a lazy gatekeeper who naps frequently. She exercises in the morning, guards the gate, makes rounds around SDM, and does most of the gardening. When she slacks off she reads tengu published manga, and chats with those who come by the SDM giving off a rather positive impression of "that house filled with devils." While there are canon references to her napping on the job, that is not all that she is. Reducing her character to such a one note existence is quite sad in my opinion. So I thought it quite strange that Meiling was told by Rin that the detective can read minds (CDS Chap. 1, Pg. 20) and yet shows a shocked reaction when Reimu talks about Satori's power (CDS Chap. 2, Pg. 5) like she wasn't already informed.

However, considering that Patchouli is the first to "find" Meiling passed out in the flowers (yet doesn't even try to help her) (CDS Chap. 4.5, Pg. 3) it's most likely that Patchouli stops being possessed at this time, meaning any weirdness with Meiling is just due to Meiling being weird.

Even if that is the case there is one Meiling interaction I would like to point out. (CDS Chap. 2, Pg. 12-15) When Meiling brings down food for Sakuya and Flan, Sakuya remarks, "This soup is missing the shaved truffles.", "If you forget them, the mistress [Flan] will be mad." To which Meiling slams the door.

Flan goes on to state two pages later that she hates truffles. I wonder if this is an indicator of their speculated friendship that often appears in fanon works. Meiling knows that Flan doesn't like truffles so she has her soup made without them. Then again, the next time we see Flan she's gleefully choking the unconscious Meiling so who can say for sure. This is Touhou after all, and these are the two least developed SDM characters with actual names.

Now, for a bit of plot speculation. ZUN does like to hint at general trends and plots in his print works. Upcoming and past incidents are shown in minor manga plots quite regularly and we happen to have had quite a few incidents where the magical/spiritual/natural energy in Gensoukyou is manipulated, along with the most recent game involving animal spirits possessing our protagonists. This time we're dealing with a vengeful spirit, a soul with a longstanding grudge. Currently her motives and identity are a mystery, but she seems to want the magical energy present within powerful individuals residing in Gensoukyou for something. We haven't had many interactions with the vengeful spirit herself, and the exact point in time that she leaves Patchouli is up for debate, but it's not a good idea to trust Patchouli in general as a source of any factual information, the only times I'm willing to reference the things Patchouli says and remembers in the timeline is due to the presence of Satori. The only other time that a known possessed individual is spoken to is the conversation between Reimu and Marisa in chapter 6, however, immediately after Marisa bails it is revealed that the vengeful spirit has multiple modes of operation. (CDS Chap. 6, Pg. 17) "However we don't know if she's [Marisa] being controlled by it or not. Be careful not to get yourself possessed..." - Satori. The vengeful spirit might not have been in control for the conversation between Reimu and Marisa, but it will have knowledge of the conversation. It's my belief that the only time we've heard the vengeful spirit speak is after Patchouli wakes up at the end of chapter 2 through chapter 3. At some point after chapter 3 during chapter 3.5 the vengeful spirit switches to Meiling. During this time Patchouli steers the conversation she's apart of towards blaming Sakuya, in fact the first thing possessed Patchouli asks when she wakes up is "What happened", to which Remilia reveals to her everything allowing the vengeful spirit to mislead the cast.

There are still a few too many questions to rule anything conclusive, but one thing I want to know is if the vengeful spirit can hold off draining a magical existence of their energy upon first contact or if that's just a set rule. Satori has confirmed with Meiling that the spirit can just leave whether the victim is conscious or not. Satori has also confirmed that the spirit can hide within a human target without rendering them unconscious. Can those attributes be combined? To possess a magical entity and control them before draining them of energy?

The thing I'm most looking forward to is having Satori and Marisa in the same room. I feel like quite a bit will be revealed if Satori has the opportunity to read Marisa's mind.

DUMB FINAL THOUGHTS Alice hasn't had any speaking lines in over a decade, is ZUN going to continue that trend by having her be the mouthpiece of the vengeful spirit instead of being able to speak her own thoughts? If the magic circle in Alice's book is being used to generate heat for her stove-top why is the same magic circle on the floor of the SDM atrium? Is Youmu purposely avoiding learning anything about vengeful spirits because she's afraid of ghosts? DID SATORI DRINK THAT GLASS OF WATER FROM RIN AND GET POSSESSED AT THE END OF CHAPTER 7???

Thanks for reading.

#touhou #chireikiden #cheating detective satori #manga #mystery

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paladin-lynx · 5 years

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Human SQUIPtober 2019, Day 7: Michael

Human SQUIPtober 2019 Day 7: Michael

Ships Involved: None

Setting: Post-musical AU where the SQUIP somehow returned as a human and was redeemed/rehabilitated by Jeremy (with the help of the rest of the squad), and lives with him having had nowhere else to go. He looks pretty similar to how he looked in Jeremy’s head, and physically he looks to be around college age.

Trigger/Content Warnings: None

Author’s Notes: (Late again, RIP me.) I’m going to be busy the next day or two, so I may not get to cover the prompts for the next few days. Or maybe I will. Who knows? I hope you enjoy this one! Apologies if any of my facts are inaccurate when Squip is rattling off information. I did my best to research. This one was really fun to write!

“Okay okay, um…Oh! When were the first headphones made?”

“1881, technically,” Squip responded without missing a beat, not even looking away from the screen as he guided his character to dodge a fireball. “They were used by telephone operators, but only had one earpiece and weighed over ten pounds. The first headphones that resemble what you know today were made in 1910 by a man named Nathaniel Baldwin. He made them in his kitchen and then sold them to the Navy.”

Michael let out a whistle, although when he looked out of the corner of his eye, Squip could see the slight crease in Michael’s brow from the fact that he had probably thought, yet again, that he could stump Squip. “Damn. So he’s the one I have to thank for my precious set?”

Squip huffed. “I suppose. Although he never patented them, since he considered them trivial.”

“Even though the Navy used them?”

“He patented certain parts of them, but not the way they were assembled. So yes, even though the Navy used them and told him he should get a patent. He may have just been an idiot with a few strokes of good luck.”

Michael laughed, having to pause the game to give himself a moment to recover. Squip couldn’t help breaking into a smile, setting down his controller to wait. He and Michael had become a very unlikely pair, considering all of the grief Squip had caused Michael when he was still in Jeremy’s head. Michael of course had taken a while to warm up to him despite Jeremy’s assurances that Squip had very intently turned over a new leaf, and Squip would have accepted it, albeit dejectedly, if Michael had chosen to avoid him at all costs.

But perhaps it was the fact that Jeremy was spending a lot more time with Christine that had drawn Michael and Squip, who both clung a bit too tightly to his companionship, together and had them warming up more to one another with each passing day.

Nowadays it was common, when Jeremy was off with Christine and Rich was up to only God knew what, for Michael to ask Squip if he wanted to hang out. Michael was usually the one to initiate since Squip didn’t want to impose – sticking to his manners as he tended to – but he had gotten better at every now and then asking Michael if he was free and if he could come over. They usually ended up just playing video games – as Squip seemed to have inherited a slightly tamer version of Jeremy’s obsession – and just chatting. Occasionally they’d watch a movie instead and Michael would wheeze in laughter as Squip felt the need to comment on everything happening on screen. Squip had become pretty at home in Michael’s house, even if it did often have a lingering smell of weed in the air. Michael’s mothers already fussed over him like he was another son, just as they did with the rest of Michael’s friends. It was nice, even if sometimes it was a little flustering.

But no matter what they were doing, the one constant was that Michael would always try to think up random, obscure questions to ask Squip in an attempt to find something Squip didn’t know. Even if he was no longer a supercomputer with extensive databases on everything known to man, Squip had retained a decent amount of his knowledge. Sometimes he needed to take a moment to wrack his brain for a specific fact, but thus far, Michael had yet to flummox him. Although he sometimes wondered if Michael would even know if he didn’t have an answer to one of his more random questions. Squip could make up a decently believable answer and Michael may very well buy it, although he felt that he would want Michael to have his victory should it ever come to pass. Even if Michael proceeded to gloat about it for the next ten years.

Today, they were playing Contra, since Michael as always preferred his older games. They did have their charm. He’d poked fun at Squip as he’d entered the Konami Code to grant them thirty lives, remembering when Jeremy had told him that a SQUIP’s way of syncing with other SQUIPs was with a play on the old cheat code. There had been some banter back and forth about Squip being able to take over Michael’s NES before they’d dove in, with Michael occasionally piping up with a question. Squip would never be Michael’s Player Two, as that revered title was reserved for Jeremy and Jeremy alone, but he liked to think he was relatively skilled. Video games were all about timing and strategy, after all. He’d settle for instead being the boys’ Player Three – sometimes even Player Four if they convinced Christine to give it a shot.

Michael finally sucked in a deep breath and calmed down, shifting to get more comfortable on the couch before he started up the game again, the pair of them easily jumping back into the 8-bit action. Their characters stuck close together, working in tandem to traverse through the oncoming bullets and leaping enemies. Squip knew that, unlike Apocalypse of the Damned, Michael and Jeremy had beaten Contra plenty of times, but it was such a classic that when they needed something to do, it was one of the games they fell back on.

“Ooh! I’ve got another one for you!” Michael chirped as they had to slow down, skirting past laser-beams. “What’s ‘I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight’ from?”

Squip blinked, brow furrowing at the screen as he took a minute to think. As the seconds ticked by without him giving a response, he could practically feel Michael squirming next to him in excitement. But then it dawned on Squip and he chuckled. “The Devil Wears Prada? 2006, directed by David Frankel?”

Michael groaned, sinking back into the couch cushions. “How do you remember all this stuff? Are you sure you don’t still have a computer stored away somewhere in your head?”

“Pretty certain.”

“Then how in the hell?”

To be completely honest, Squip wasn’t really sure himself. He seemed to be just as human as everyone else, at least in terms of appearance and capability, but he did have an exceptional memory with a lot of the information he’d had as a SQUIP stowed away in there. Of course, the brain had its limits and he couldn’t store absolutely everything, so it was inevitable that eventually Michael would find one of the handful of things he was fuzzy on. Until then, though, he continued to soar ahead in this little game of theirs.

He offered a shrug. “Natural talent? I am pretty amazing, even as a plain old human.”

“Narcissist,” Michael accused playfully, nudging his shoulder against Squip’s. “We all know that under that ego, you’re just a big softie.”

Squip snorted, rolling his eyes. “I am not.”

“You so are! You’re all squishy underneath that hard shell.”

Squip grimaced at the description. “Technically, all humans are exactly that.”

Michael blinked at him, like a startled cat, before he stuck out his tongue in a fake gag. “Gross, dude.”

Squip laughed, pulling his controller closer as he almost accidentally ran his character right into an enemy. “You started it.”

“Not really!” But Squip could hear the suppressed giggle in Michael’s voice.

After a little more laughter, they once again fell into comfortable silence as they focused on the game. Michael and Jeremy had a habit of moving this way and that along with the characters on the screen, and while Squip tended to sit rather still, every now and then he found himself wincing to one side to match what was happening in the game. The squad liked to point out all of the ways Squip and Jeremy had rubbed off on one another, which they tended to deny, not unlike the timeless sibling argument that no, they did not look alike. However, the similarities hadn’t gone completely unnoticed between them, although not all of them were positive. Squip may have gained Jeremy’s sense of humor and Jeremy may have suddenly become more interested in learning how to code, but at the same time Squip found himself having emotional slumps whilst Jeremy felt intense guilt about everything that had happened leading up to and during A Midsummer Nightmare. Everything was always a double-edged sword. Such was life, Squip supposed.

“…What would happen if you drank Mountain Dew Red like this?”

The question caught Squip off guard to the point where he turned his head to look at Michael, only to realize that he’d led his Contra character right off a platform to his doom. Not that it mattered, he had more than twenty lives left. But he still paused the game to properly address the inquiry, unsure if he’d heard it correctly. “I’m sorry?”

Michael shrunk into himself somewhat now that he didn’t have the game as a distraction, looking like he wasn’t sure if he should have even asked. Finally, though, he repeated himself, speaking more slowly: “What would…what would happen if you drank Mountain Dew Red now? You know, as a human?”

Squip set his controller in his lap so he could mull over the question. Ever since he’d come back as a human, he’d been avoiding Mountain Dew in all its forms, even the regular kind that would simply activate a SQUIP. Perhaps it was just an instinct ingrained in him from his programming, since, as human as he was now, he still had moments when he fell back into habits from when he’d been in Jeremy’s head. It was in his nature, after all.

In theory, since he no longer had any machine parts left in him – as far as he could tell – then no soft drink should have any effects on him that were different from what the Average Joe would experience. Squip had tried drinking alcohol a handful of times, upon the squad’s insistence, and even if he was a terrible lightweight, he’d reacted rather normally other than slipping into Japanese a few times. SQUIPs only had as much information on themselves as was necessary to function, so Squip had no idea if another SQUIP had become human before – were the others from the play out there, too? – and thus he really had no idea how anything would affect him in this new form. He had been playing it by ear from pretty much the second he’d awoken as a human.

So assuming he was, as he had called himself, a ‘plain old human,’ then there should be nothing negative that would happen to him should he drink Mountain Dew Red. But there was still that instinct deeply ingrained in his now-biological code that screamed at him to avoid the discontinued soda at all costs. It was too risky. But was it really?

Was it worth trying to find out?

Squip finally let out a sigh, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “To be completely honest, I’m not sure. One would guess that nothing unusual would happen, but…well, my existence in itself defies logic, so it could still have some strange effect on me. Anything from a mild allergic reaction to…” He trailed off, feeling a shudder run down his spine as unpleasant memories resurfaced.

SQUIPs didn’t really feel, in either the physical or emotional sense of the word. That was what made them machines. But Squip was sure that what he had experienced as his world had crumbled around him and his connections to all of the students – and worst of all, to Jeremy – had frayed and ultimately snapped, energy forcefully blasting through all of his circuits, had been pain and fear and betrayal. To this day, he still wasn’t sure if his weak pleas for Jeremy to save him were genuine or just yet another manipulation tactic. He didn’t like to think about it, any of it. He wasn’t that thing anymore anyway. No longer a SQUIP, just Squip.

“…I’d have to drink it to know for certain,” Squip continued quietly, opening his eyes and wringing his fingers together as he stared at his lap. “But…I’m sure you can understand the risk of that.”

Michael nodded softly. “Yeah, I get it, so let’s, er…not do that. I don’t have much left of it, anyway.”

Squip raised an eyebrow, glancing over at the boy. “…Don’t tell me you’ve been drinking it. It was fated to be discontinued even without the SQUIPs’ interference, you know.”

“It’s not that bad! And Rich has drank it, too…”

Squip smiled a bit, picking up his controller again. “Naturally…Come on. We’re almost to the last stage.”

Michael nodded again, more eagerly, and turned back to the screen. “Right!”

And just like that, they fell back into their concentration, and Squip let the painful memories fade away, tucked back into the depths of his mind. It was silent up until they were just about to the final alien boss of the entire game.

“I just realized!” Michael suddenly exclaimed.

Squip turned to him curiously. “What’s that?”

He found Michael grinning at him, eyes sparkling behind his glasses. “I found a question you couldn’t answer.”

Squip blinked once, twice, five times, before he broke into a warm, incredulous laugh and dropped his controller. He slung an arm around Michael’s shoulders and tugged the boy over, tousling up his hair as Michael squirmed and yelped in protest. “That was cheating and you know it.”

“There were never any rules and you know it!”

They devolved into laughter there on the couch, Contra all but forgotten as they continued to playfully bicker and shove at one another. It was at times like this that Squip couldn’t believe that just a few months ago, Michael could barely stand to look at him.

Now here they were, Players One and Three, every day becoming a stronger team.

#Human Squiptober 2019 #Be More Chill #BMC SQUIP #BMC Michael #i was so close to getting this done on time but then i had to freaking proofread and found so many awkward sentences lol #but these two are fun to write as friends #they just nerd out together #Michael Mell #writing #mine #BMC #SQUIPtober #lynx tales

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specialchan · 4 years

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Common errors of analysis: carrying your conclusions backwards in time via /r/communism

Common errors of analysis: carrying your conclusions backwards in time

This is an informal post (a polemic in areas) addressing a common mistake I have seen that I have also been guilty of making. The reason for posting it here is as follows: although I am in a party I am the only comrade in my area, and I am guessing that quite a few posters here are not in parties yet, so I am hoping this post can be helpful for me and for them in the absence of helpful comradeship. The idea is to illustrate the error using a modern, relevant example (Chinese billionaires; woohoo!) and then to explain how criticism, originating in the self, in books or from comrades, can help address such an error. The example is something which has been discussed many times in a circular way; I hope this post can make future discussions on that topic more productive.

Introduction

Conclusions invariably come after investigation, and not before.

Mao - Oppose Book Worship

This post is for those who may accidentally come to the correct conclusion by incorrect means (thus being unable to reproduce them), and those who correctly observe the world but explain this observation incorrectly - their ideological baggage blurring their views. Those who view the world through the Marxist lens (allowing them to correctly identify the forces which act upon the object) but process that information as an idealist (linking these forces to a pre-existing idea within their head; indeed, foregrounding the observation to the ideal) are somewhat common within the growing (primarily online) leftist movement (these are my roots, too).

It is great that the communist movement has been attracting more and more supporters (and we can expect an acceleration in interest as contradictions deepen). This means that we must work even harder to identify errors within the greater movement and also within ourselves. We should double down on our struggle sessions, constructive criticisms and our readings to ensure that we are not making errors in our investigations; errors which, although they may seem small at first, will translate into greater ideological problems if they are left unchecked.

These errors surface as inaccurate understandings about the material world; understandings which, inversely, present entry points for addressing the underlying error of investigation. This is true of the error I wish to address today; the creep of idealism into Marxist analyses.

The Entry Point/Example: Illustrating why this is incorrect

There is a very relevant entry point for this, although it may not seem to be an obvious error due to its appealing (and seemingly accurate) ultimate conclusions. Example: One might understand that China is run by a Communist party and then work backwards to explain the existence of every contradiction within the PRC. Let me be clear that China's socialist legacy continues to persist and will ultimately win out, but this specific error of investigation leads new Marxists to look to the wrong places and miss the struggle being waged.

When a budding Marxist Leninist (a half-straw ML, perhaps, although the following is more a synthesis of common arguments I have seen - can we name it GenSino?) says something like:

Billionaires exist in China but they are heavily regulated if they step out of line.

One can corroborate this statement with a simple observation: indeed billionaires exist in China and indeed they are subject to capital punishment and the stripping of their assets; something not commonly seen in other countries. But the "line" and the mechanism for regulation are abstracted:

They are party members who are watched very closely; if they act against the wishes of the party then the party will crack down on them. See: Xi's anti-corruption campaign.

This unclear statement will not do. Who within the party regulates them, and why is the line drawn where it is? What are the wishes of the party if they allow for members to accumulate such wealth? What exactly isn't allowed?

Xi and his anti-corruption team regulate them! A strategic concession was made to the bourgeoisie but the party still maintains control over them.

Here we have reached an impasse for which we will continue to talk in circles if the error in thinking is not addressed. The confused ML will never be able to explain where the "line" is drawn (and why it is drawn "there") while maintaining the image of a homogeneous party within their head; hence they resort to abstractions and the words of politicians. Yet they have (accidentally) come to a correct understanding in a few instances (although they may not realize it) which present the correct path forward.

They understand that something within the party "regulates" the striving of the bourgeoisie, yet also that the bourgeoisie is able to reproduce their own wealth in the first place. If they cannot move forward from here it is because their ideological baggage is weighing them down and leaving them confused: they are working backwards from an assertion (China is socialist) and trying to reshape contradictions to fit the mold of this assertion without challenging it.

Following this, another line that typically comes out is an appeal to socialist elements to outweigh or explain away the aspects that are not socialist. Something along the lines of:

Yes there are contradictions within the PRC but the country continues to exercise democratic centralism and economic planning. Productive forces.....2050. Here is their constitution and some statements from party officials.

This does not explain the existence of the bourgeoisie; in fact it complicates it. It is a flippant disregard for Marxist analysis in an attempt to preserve the ideal. Here the goalposts are moved to a vast generalization about the party's direction. But this generalization is so vague and lazy that it cannot be proven false! Either we talk in circles are we make un-falsifiable generalizations.

Instead of dealing with abstractions and generalizations, we must focus on concrete forms. If the bourgeoisie exist within the party - a communist party of some 90 million - but there are forces within the party "regulating" them, then we can understand that there is an opposing force within the party that stops the bourgeoisie from wresting complete control. This in itself contradicts the confused ML's idea of a homogeneous party; thus what the "strawML" also fails to understand is why the "line" exists and why it has moved over the past decade.

For this unfortunate misunderstanding, history must be a monolith that is understood from the perspective of the present: China is socialist now and every historical event has led to the point in time where this assertion is made; every action and contradiction of the past logically expanded and contracted to reach the current political economic conditions; all under the steadfast control of "the party" who has maintained control for 70 years. Events are understood by their end-point: it is said that the "line" moved because Xi came into power, and the "billionaires" exist because a strategic concession was made to them. This is then extended to the future: these contradictions will be erased by 2050.

This, unfortunately, is lazy liberalism in direct opposition to the Marxist conception of history; it posits an idea as an agent in the world, granting it the ability to enforce change, instead of the correct, materialist, dialectical conception of the world which births ideas. Let's continue with our fake discussion:

Why do forces within the party oppose the striving of the bourgeoisie?

Because they are communist!

Good, there are communist forces within the party! Indeed there are millions of workers and those of the "left line" struggling within the party and the greater country against the striving of the bourgeoisie. Now how were those "billionaires" able to accumulate such wealth, and what would we call them and those who support them?

I already told you, because they were allowed to! The communist party made strategic concessions to capitalism and the bourgeoisie in order to develop the productive forces. Please excuse my sass I am but a strawML......

As the "strawML" said, the bourgeoisie exist within the party as well; this is our "out" from the ideological trap. We have crudely identified two lines which are in direct opposition to each other within the same party, and budding Marxists should be able to understand why they are in opposition (class interests). Although it may be unclear we have now found our mechanism (leftist push-back) and the "extent" of the bourgeoisie's power (the extent of the rightist's power is directly tied into the extent of the leftist's power). What we come to understand the CPC as is an arena for line (or class) struggle. Contradictions in discourse and in material reality - in this case the idea of the "acceptance" of bourgeoisie within a communist party - are entry points for correcting mislead Marxists. Once this class struggle is made clear the confused ML can be steered toward Marxist literature on the subject (this should help cement it).

Wouldn't it be better for the "strawML" to first ground their observations within the vast Marxist literature? They would not have to "cudgel themselves over the head" (as Mao would say, and as the "strawML" has done here) to gain an accurate understanding. Here is another reasons why the error must be corrected: ease of mind!

Further Exploration of the Error

All the budding Marxists with views like the above are comrades, albeit confused ones (take it from a former confused ML; confusion is not chauvinism, so do not feel I am waging an attack). This confusion seems to be amplified by the typical mediums of "online ML" knowledge production: passing around ready-made conclusions on Twitter and on forums like an online game of "telephone", handing out easy answers to present to the nay-sayers. But without fully understanding them yourselves, when you try to re-produce them in different contexts you will come to incorrect conclusions.

Let me be clear that while the original observation produces a few accuracies (ie: communists and capitalists exist within China) it is perverted by idealism; most notably by its semantics (which are in contradiction to Marxist theory) although in more ways than that. The breaking point is the error of abstracting the historical actors, thus leaving them immune to the forces of history (namely class struggle); applying the ideal of a strong, united CPC backwards in time to explain complex events instead.

Investigation must precede the conclusion, and it must be grounded in Marxist science - that which we take to be basically correct and use as the base of our argument. Ignoring 150+ years of scientific observation, or more specifically cherry-picking it to prove your conclusion correct while moving backwards in time to investigate it, is a glaring mistake that leads to misunderstandings.

In this post, for instance, there are several fallacious (and common) assumptions that are drawn out by the error of investigation:

a) That the party is a homogeneous entity which is able to self-correct. The problem is referring to the "party" as an abstract whole and not examining the forces within it and without it which act upon it (chiefly the internal struggle which produces a compromising party line; "billionaires, but to an extent.....markets, but state control" etc). This leads to the incorrect assumption of the party's overarching "master plan".

b) Stemming from a): that every historical event must be reshaped to fit this current idea of a continuous, strategic, homogeneous CPC. What we get is the incorrect idea of a "strategic concession" to billionaires and several nested inaccurate assertions (such as the privatization of SOEs and smashing of the iron rice bowl being done strategically) from working backwards in history.

c) Stemming from b): that the bourgeoisie were able to accumulate wealth and reproduce their class by the good graces of the CPC - that is that communists planned and wished for a select few to be able to amass and hoard such wealth by exploiting labour, and that this method of wealth accumulation is good and moral but "corrupt" forms like bribery and embezzlement are not.

d) That the same monolithic party which "allowed" for the mass accumulation of wealth among a select few (and all the contradictions which came with this) did so with socialist intent; they were, in the long run, thinking of the workers and the peasants, and so they subtly improved worker rights after stripping them (?) and so on (was this a "strategic concession" to the workers? Where do we "draw the line" for our abstractions?).

When you begin with a contradiction and try to fit it to an ideal you will produce contradictory conclusions; hence the error of investigation can and will lead to further inaccuracies. The strange idea that communist billionaires magically granted healthcare and worker rights to the proles after stripping it from them is thought up, when really it was Chinese workers and communists (within and without the party) who fought to gain those rights back.

Correcting the error

Let us leave idealism to the liberals. When the president of the United States says that they are invading the Middle East to bring freedom, we do not judge this policy by our pre-conceived ideas about American politicians; we do so because we have observed the real-world effects of such interventions and we can correctly link our observations to real-world forces (and other events in history). The American who observes the intervention and all of its destruction but connects it to their own pre-conceived ideals of America forms a contradictory idea out of their own cognitive dissonance: something of moral relativism such as "the greater good". We sit here and make fun of them for being "brainwashed" and then commit similar errors of investigation! Sure, the two errors are scaled but neither the idea of the "strategic concession" or the idea of "moral relativism" are scientifically correct.

Many of us more-sheltered citizens of the West came to be Marxists while shedding our Western idealism and seeing the world "how it really is" - it was Marxism that provided the scientific truth and tools which we could use to bring out these truths; to prove that the propaganda we were fed about communism and the West was false. But our old liberal ideals are incredibly pesky and difficult to do away with - they invade our thoughts and colour our analyses with idealism and moralism. This cannot be so; we must continually struggle against liberalism, idealism and opportunism. This is how we avoid committing the same errors over and over.

The struggle involves a few different methods. Firstly, we read the work of communists who have written about such errors and how to avoid them (including corrections). Most, from Marx to Stalin to Losurdo have written about distortions of Marxist thought and practice, but Lenin and Mao are perhaps the most prudent. The danger is in reading what they have to say and thinking "it couldn't be me". Too many imagine themselves to be Lenin and not Kautsky; at least, until it is revealed that socialist revolution is not a fight for the right to freely smoke weed and play communist video games (this is my weekly allowance of hyperbole).

This is why we (secondly) remain open to criticism from our comrades. If a comrade is criticizing you for a view that you have, take a second to consider what implications their criticism may have on your thought and practice. Communist criticism is to be welcomed as it builds understanding; to reject a comrades criticism to protect your ego (assuming it is apt criticism) is weak liberalism.

This goes both ways: you must be willing to provide appropriate criticism to comrades when they commit errors. I made this unclear comment recently; I feel it confused some comrades and I notice that it spawned a post (which I didn't know how to respond to) so I might as well acknowledge it as related:

I know it's super tempting to accept the words of others as fact, especially when they are popular, but I'd advise some caution towards accepting arguments that, for example, have trouble qualifying themselves using correct terminology (or otherwise have a selective allergy to the literature).

The point is that Marxism is our science, and a tendency to stray from it usually points to an incorrect analysis. It can be difficult to accurately identify an error in another comrade's argument - especially if it is a popular argument - but with a good grounding in the Marxist literature and with constructive discussions it will be much easier.

Conclusions

Hopefully this post (crudely) plants the seed that a budding Marxist should not feel like an enemy for being confused (and thus temporarily un-aligned on any given topic), and that their confusion is probably a symptom of a greater error in investigation. Inaccurate statements which are made out of confusion can be entry points for identifying and correcting these errors; this will surely be helpful to them (me)(us).

One such error which is central to this post is to start with a conclusion and move backwards. Another entry point for this: one could start at SWCC and still make it to the conclusion of class struggle. Ultimately, however, it is better to start with a grounding in Marxist theory and then proceed forward with your investigation before making any conclusions.

Submitted September 11, 2020 at 06:30PM by TheReimMinister via reddit https://ift.tt/3bQWZNd

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