In 2019, a captivating mnemonic began circulating online: “If the Naomi be Klein / you’re doing just fine / If the Naomi be Wolf / Oh, buddy. Ooooof.” This rhyme acknowledged Naomi Wolf’s perplexing intellectual journey into conspiracism and the unintended consequences it had on Naomi Klein, the Canadian climate activist and anti-capitalist.
Naomi Wolf, renowned for her feminist masterpiece “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” in the 1990s, which exposed the oppressive grooming standards imposed on women, has since become one of America’s most prolific conspiracy theorists. She proudly states on her Twitter profile that she has been “deplatformed 7 times and still right.” Wolf has made outrageous claims about vaccines being a “software platform” capable of receiving “uploads” and has developed a peculiar obsession with the notion that certain clouds are not real, but rather evidence of “geoengineered skies.” Although she has largely vanished from mainstream media, she has found a welcome spot as a favored guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast, War Room.
Unfortunately, this newfound conspiracism has proven to be detrimental to Naomi Klein. People frequently mistake the two Naomis for one another, causing confusion and frustration for Klein. This mix-up initially resulted in mere embarrassment when Klein noticed the confusion back in 2011. However, as time went on, this mix-up became increasingly problematic for Klein, as she found herself constantly associated with Wolf’s extreme views and beliefs. What was behind the mix-up? Was it their shared first name, their Jewish heritage, or their similar physical appearances, including their partners’ names? Klein began to see eerie parallels between their lives, such as both experiencing rejection from their respective peer groups. For Klein, it was fellow students who ostracized her when she first criticized Israel in her college newspaper.
Klein, who once admired Wolf’s work, was horrified to discover that Wolf had strayed from feminist criticism into broader social polemics. When Klein read Wolf’s 2007 book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” she felt as though she was reading a parody of her own book, “The Shock Doctrine,” with all the facts and evidence meticulously removed. This realization was unnerving for Klein, who felt as though she was being consumed by “Other Naomi,” as she refers to Wolf in her new book, “Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.”
The confusion between the two Naomis became even more frustrating for Klein because her breakout work, “No Logo” in 1999, was a manifesto against branding and commodification. And yet, she found herself desperately trying to protect her personal brand from Wolf’s intrusion. Klein admits that she initially had no intention of writing “Doppelganger,” as she felt there were more pressing issues plaguing the world, but she became increasingly fixated on Wolf’s transformation into a conspiracy theorist. How did Wolf go from being a beloved liberal to a regular guest on Bannon’s podcast within a decade?
Like many others, I was captivated by Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” when I was younger but almost forgot about her until 2010 when she made outlandish claims about Interpol acting as the world’s dating police during the Julian Assange scandal. Two years later, she published “Vagina: A New Biography,” which blended accounts of rape as a weapon of war with a personal quest to overcome sexual dysfunction through unconventional means. In one particularly bizarre scene, a friend of Wolf’s served vulva-shaped pasta at a party, which overwhelmed her and caused severe writer’s block. At this point, I couldn’t help but wonder if Wolf’s natural inclination towards conspiracism had seeped into her other works, with feminism being the only valid conspiracy she stumbled upon.
Wolf’s final fall from grace occurred in 2019 when she was embarrassingly debunked during a live radio interview about her book “Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love.” Wolf claimed that gay men in Victorian England were routinely executed for sodomy, but the host pointed out that the phrase “death recorded” actually meant the sentence had been commuted, not carried out. This misstep marked the beginning of the end for Wolf, as she was ridiculed and mocked for her history of disregarding evidence and logical consistency. The New York Times review of “Outrages” referred to her as having a “long, ludicrous career.” Her publisher in the U.K. agreed to make changes to future editions, and the release of the U.S. edition was canceled entirely.
Klein dedicates a significant portion of her book, “Doppelganger,” to this incident, recognizing it as the turning point and the defining moment for Wolf’s transition to the pseudo-populist right. If the intellectual elites no longer praised her, then the Bannonite right would. She could now exist in a world where mistakes held no consequences, shame was nonexistent, and fact-checkers were dismissed as elitists. “These people don’t disappear just because we can no longer see them,” Klein warns her fellow leftists, cautioning against using public humiliation as a weapon against the right. Even if denied access to mainstream media, those who have been ostracized find solace in alternative platforms like One America News Network, Newsmax, Rumble, Gettr, Gab, Truth Social, and Elon Musk’s Twitter replacement, X. In the realm of podcasts, the heterodox space revels in “just asking questions” while disregarding peer-reviewed answers. Despite losing her cultural standing, Wolf has managed to maintain her audience by retreating into what Klein terms the “Mirror World.”
Klein believes that this alternate reality is particularly welcoming to those who blend personal and social grievances into an enticing populist narrative. By playing on the sentiment of being despised by the intellectual elite, these figures gain support. Klein offers a sort of equation for understanding how leftists and liberals cross over to the authoritarian right: Narcissism (Grandiosity) + Social media addiction + Midlife crisis ÷ Public shaming = Right-wing meltdown. Although Klein is hesitant to delve too deeply into the psychology behind this equation, it’s clear that narcissism plays a crucial role. The allure of feeling special and possessing secret knowledge becomes irresistible for those who feel overlooked and disrespected in their everyday lives.
However, Klein’s primary focus lies in the sociology of this phenomenon, rather than individual psychology. She argues that Wolf is not an opportunist or a fraud but a true believer, even if her beliefs happen to earn her attention and praise. But what does this say about the culture that enables and nourishes her? Initially, Klein believed that the world of her doppelgänger was fueled by unbridled grifting. However, over time, she began to realize that she was witnessing the birth of a dangerous political movement, complete with alliances, worldviews, slogans, enemies, code words, no-go zones, and most importantly, strategies for attaining power.
To explore this ambitious agenda, Klein expands her analysis to include various tangents. At one point, she finds herself engrossed in hours of “War Room,” a podcast hosted by a man who has built a dark empire of…
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
