Joyless Theocracy? Look in the Mirror, Economist
"Joyless theocracy." "Murderous dictatorship." Strong language from The Economist , the same magazine whose editorial line cheered the invasion of Iraq (one million dead), the bombing of Libya (a slave market), and every "humanitarian intervention" between Belgrade and Sana''a. The April 17 piece, lamenting that Iran is winning the AI propaganda war, manages to say the quiet part loud: Western
elites are not upset that propaganda exists. They are upset that, this time, it is funnier than theirs. Let us examine the moral high ground from which this verdict is delivered. The "land of the free" currently houses an unredacted client list belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child trafficker who died in federal custody under cameras that conveniently malfunctioned. The same political
class that cannot release those names has, since October 2023, signed off on weapons packages that helped kill more than 19,000 children in Gaza, according to the Lancet and UN OCHA. In April 2026, that same establishment is funding strikes on Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran, where the casualty toll from Operation Epic Fury alone exceeds 22,000 civilians. But sure: Tehran is the joyless one. The
Economist''s actual complaint is technical, not moral. Iranian state media, embassy accounts, and IRGC spokesmen have out-memed an American information apparatus that still believes a Pentagon press briefing counts as content. A Lego-style animation showing a bandaged Trump figurine doomscrolling racked up 181,000 views on a single Economist tweet, more engagement than the magazine''s own