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END OF EMPIRE, END OF NEWSPAPER Peggy Noonan correctly intuits that it's weird for the "most powerful capital in the world" to have no official newspaper: But that's because Washington, DC is simply no longer the "most important capital in the world." The Blue part of the Western State (meaning the Democrats) has lost control over speech, media, and money. The Democrats did try very hard to censor social media, regulate AI, and ban crypto. But the Internet won, and with total defeat of both Democrat speech controls and their regulatory state...the Internet is now scaling globally, outside DC's control. Meanwhile, the Red part of the Western State (meaning the Republicans) has lost the trade war, the proxy war, and the new cold war. The Republicans also did try very hard to reindustrialize with tariffs, to beat Russia with NATO, and to contain China in Asia. But China won, and with the ongoing Republican withdrawal from both military alliances and international markets...China is also now scaling globally outside DC's control. And those are the successors to American Empire: China and the Internet. China inherits America's physical footprint, the manufacturing and the military. Meanwhile, the Internet inherits America's digital strength, the media and the money. Roughly speaking, China replaces the Republicans, and the Internet displaces the Democrats. So: news about Washington, DC just matters less. And thus the Washington Post gets replaced by its Chinese and Internet replacements. The Chinese Post is Qiushi If you want to read turgid propaganda, Qiushi is right there. It is what the Post actually was, namely the internal newsletter of the ruling class of a global empire. Yes, it's technically by Communists rather than Democrats, but that's increasingly the same thing. Qiushi disseminates the ever-changing Party line and tells you what's going on in Beijing: The Internet Post is X Conversely, if you want to read unfiltered information, X is right here. It is what the Post pretended to be, namely bottom-up journalism holding the powerful to account. Yes, it's by citizens rather than "journalists", but that's supposed to be the same thing. X covers the ever-changing digital world and tells you what's actually happening on the Internet: The Soviet Post was Pravda That's the present. But what about the past? What's happening now is what always happens at the end of empire: the fake newspapers are getting shut down. Pravda ended when the Soviet Empire ended, and the Washington Post is ending as the American Empire is ending: The end of Pravda meant the end of all the far left lies that had lasted for decades. It also coincided with extreme levels of economic instability and nationalist upheaval. Does this sound familiar? Because that's what it means to become "a republic, not an empire." As Washington, DC pulls back from ruling the world, because it has neither the desire nor the capability to do that, the Washington Post becomes less important. What becomes more important instead is China and the Internet. Yes, it does herald the end of American Empire. (1) First, those social media posts are on the Internet. Not via some state-aligned prestige outlet, not via broadcast media. They are on the Internet, on tech platforms operated by non-government actors, where anyone can talk back. Very different from the institutional strength of the past! (2) Second, obviously the global economy would not choose from scratch to center itself around something so unpredictable as today’s DC. The past architects of American Empire built a *stable* system, not one that freezes Treasuries (as under Biden) or seizes stakes in tech companies. Who today can rely on Delaware incorporation, or California’s tax code, or NYC’s financial probity, or Washington’s predictability? (3) That means the American Empire is 100% a legacy empire, in the middle of rapid implosion, economic isolationism, and military withdrawal. There is a lot of confusing yelling during this process, and apparent contradiction, but the signal amidst the noise are deals like Canada/China, EU/India, and the 2025 National Security Strategy announcing military withdrawal from Asia. (4) Fourth, the IQ of American leaders has fallen to idiocratic levels. That’s why there is increasingly just profanity and memes from both parties. The way Democrats and Republicans speak is just extremely different in tone from how Chinese leaders or (to a lesser extent) how Internet founders speak. (5) Numerically: compare the collapse of American political IQ to the rise of Chinese robots and Internet artificial intelligence. Clearly, both Democrats and Republicans are down and to the right, while China and the Internet are up and to the right.