In her latest book, the best-selling author investigates conspiracy theories. She opens up to Alexandra Jones about the post-truth moment we’re living in and how this work is unlike all her others
‘IFYOU’RETELLINGPEOPLE,“THISISABATTLE for good and evil, light versus dark”, which is a big part of the discourse within conspiracy land, it shouldn’t be surprising that some people believe it and act on it,’ says Naomi Klein. One of the world’s most respected investigative journalists is chatting to me from her home in rural Canada about her latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.
Since publishing her first, the anticapitalist bible No Logo in 1999, she has become known for holding governments and the corporate elite to account. The book was an almost-instant success, selling millions and turning Klein, then only 29, into an icon of the political left. Klein describes her nine critically acclaimed books as ‘attempts to map the political moment’. With No Logo, she captured the anti-corporate sentiments driving so many turn-of-the century youth movements; her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine – which explored the rise of so-called disaster capitalism – led to Klein being anointed ‘the most visible and influential figure on the American left’ by the The New Yorker.
Doppelganger is part memoir, part investigation into the rise of far-right conspiracy culture. With the shadow of Donald Trump looming larger than ever over American politics, it feels like necessary reading for anyone wondering how we got here but – as I put to her – abrave move, given the violence endemic to the circles that Klein sets out to investigate.
‘Yes, but I don’t think that’s a reason to go silent,’ she says quietly. Klein is calm, softly spoken and supremely reserved as we talk over Zoom. ‘The apocalyptic language that’s absolutely rampant in conspiracy culture means that a lot of people are very close to breaking point. So whether or not somebody is consciously trying to incite violence, we have more evidence every day that people take it into their own hands. I’m not going to go mute because of that. What I will say is that I take it seriously and I take precautions.’
In Doppelganger, Klein weaves her own personal experiences into the reporting and analysis for the first time. She writes about her son’s autism and the quest to find him proper care, and about her husband running for local office. ‘This was a very different book for me, in many ways,’ says Klein. ‘I did this with a writing coach, somebody working with me to try to access a different kind of voice – on
