tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society

A Critique of the Chinese Radical Net-Philosophy Community

Zhongkai Qian — 2024-12-29

This article delves into the dynamics of the Chinese net-philosophy community, a unique digital and radical subculture where young enthusiasts engage with philosophical ideas outside of traditional academic frameworks. We examine how radical knowledge was produced, validated, and circulated within these net communities, focusing on the aestheticisation of knowledge and its impact on political engagement. This study reveals how alternative intellectual pursuit in a digitalised pile of debris, where form and style prioritise over substance, synchronising ideas and actions leads to the opposite of its progressive politics. Reviewing the aestheticisation and alienation of knowledge, we examine the recurrence of establishing authority and status and the implication of aesthetic hierarchies and performative politics on the net community’s capacity for meaningful political action. Ultimately, we argue that while the aestheticisation of knowledge acknowledged a broader post-millennial youth spiritual crisis, the net-philosophy community was marked by a depoliticisation of intellectual debates and the failure of political engagement in digital spaces.

Cosmolocalism Against Platform Capitalism: Evidence From Ridesharing

Yosuke Uchiyama — 2025-01-13

The rise of digital commons has expanded shared resources and addressed some challenges of traditional commons. However, this expansion has created new boundaries, forming a complex paradigm that challenges platform capitalism and demands alternative governance models. This study conceptualises shared resources within the framework of cosmolocalism, examining their formation, the processes of enclosure under platform capitalism, and potential pathways for de-embedding. Platform capitalism utilises legal frameworks and opaque algo-rithmic systems to appropriate resources and dominates digital labour markets, manifesting a contemporary tragedy of the commons characterised by exploitation and profit maximisation. Using ridesharing as a case study, this research highlights the dynamic nature of cosmolocal-ism and proposes strategies to counter exploitation. By integrating platform cooperativism and social common capital, this study offers sustainable, equitable resource management solu-tions, supported by a comparative analysis of business models.

Trump’s Pre-Inauguration Rhetoric: A Neo-Colonial Blueprint Through Critical Theory

K M Vishnu Namboodiri — 2025-01-17

This article critically examines Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration rhetoric through the lens of critical theory, uncovering its neo-colonial and capitalist underpinnings. Drawing from the theoretical contributions of Jürgen Habermas, Louis Althusser, Kwame Nkrumah, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Guy Debord, the analysis demonstrates how Trump’s economic and militaristic declarations perpetuate global capitalist dominance. His rhetoric exemplifies the colonization of the lifeworld, the operation of ideological state apparatuses, and the spectacle of power, all of which work together to reproduce and legitimize neo-colonial exploitation. The synthesis of these critical theories provides a comprehensive critique, highlighting the ideological and structural mechanisms that sustain global inequalities and calling for a praxis of resistance towards a more equitable global order.