Over the decades, every time I have heard some variant on 'everyone needs to learn to code' there is always a subtle unsettling feeling that arises in the back of my mind around the notion of linguistic imperialism, and that the promulgator instinctively believes or realizes, whether it actually exists or not, that the framing of any given, non-generalized technology inherently carries a ideological supposition that, as with all suppositions, the bearers want to spread to totality.

How about a comparison to modern education? Back before public education gave everyone the knowledge necessary to write for themselves, would it have been imperialist to advocate for that goal? If so, does it matter?

Basic understanding of programming might be useful. But perhaps critical thinking/reasoning would be even more so. Not sure how this could be developed. Maybe subjects such as philosophy, history, logic, classical literature, etc...

I'd agree that would be sufficient if we didn't see stories like this one about people overwhelmingly feeling left behind by technological progress. As it is, there's something missing between where education is and where it needs to be. Maybe it's just that the general quality of education is poor so people don't know how to use what they've learned. Or maybe there are new topics that need to be introduced to keep people functionally literate in the modern world. Or both.