Doppelganger

July 31, 2023
In this striking meditation on contemporary political ideology, journalist Klein (This Changes Everything) explores unsettling resonances between her progressive beliefs and those of feminist turned right-wing conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf. Klein recounts her annoyance over the tendency for commentators to confuse her with Wolf (who like her is a Jewish woman known for writing “big-idea books”), and her alarm as her “doppelgänger” veered rightward during the Covid-19 pandemic, embracing antivaxxer and Stop the Steal conspiracy theories and becoming a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast. On this bleakly comic happenstance Klein hangs an analysis of right-wing populism, particularly the antivaxxer movement, as a warped mirror image of her own anticapitalist convictions. She goes on to find doppelgängers at the heart of other political ideologies, arguing, for example, that Nazism was the doppelgänger of a genocidal Western colonialism, and that Israeli Zionism views Palestinians as malignant doppelgängers much as antisemites view Jews. Klein’s writing is perceptive and intriguingly personal, but the doppelgänger theme begins to feel slightly overextended, with too many variations muddling the metaphor. However, by articulating such an expansive view of the uncanny, Klein’s mesmerizing narrative reflects the unique anxieties and modes of analysis that have come to dominate the online era. Like Klein’s previous books, it’s a definitive signpost of the times.