The Empire That Could Still Become Wise

Language Matters by Elias Winter · Jun 25, 2026 · 29m

I. I Criticize Because I Love

I know I criticize America a lot.

I criticize the empire. I criticize the oligarchs. I criticize the lobbies, the media, the little factories of outrage, the algorithms that have learned to chew through the human nervous system with the efficiency of a military contractor. I criticize weak liberalism when it becomes moral theater without courage. I criticize shallow wokeism when it mistakes vocabulary for virtue. I criticize the nationalist right when it turns grief into cruelty and calls it strength. I criticize the Islamic Republic of Iran. I criticize ethnic…