Book Review: Doppelgänger — A Trip Into The Mirror World by Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger is a book about mirror worlds, digital doubles, and the strange experience of being mistaken for someone who is, in many ways, her opposite. Klein, a well-known leftist thinker, finds herself repeatedly confused with Naomi Wolf, a former feminist icon who has drifted into the alt-right ecosystem. This uncanny mix-up becomes a lens through which Klein explores how identity, political polarization, and conspiracy culture have been warped in the age of social media.
Going into the book, I had high expectations — The Shock Doctrine is one of my all-time favourites. But Doppelgänger initially frustrated me. Klein seemed overly dismissive of those outside her ideological camp, and the first few chapters lingered too much on her personal biography. However, as the book progressed, it pulled me in. The ideas at its core are undeniably correct, even if I found myself disagreeing with parts of her framing.
One of my main criticisms is that Klein focuses heavily on the conspiracy-driven “mirror world” of the right while downplaying the fact that misinformation and distorted realities exist across the political spectrum. There are a fair share of conspiracies to go around — just as there’s an alternative media ecosystem that thrives on paranoia, there’s also a traditional establishment media that has, at times, misled the public. Casting those you disagree with as being too far down the rabbit hole doesn’t automatically make their concerns illegitimate.
That said, the book shines in certain chapters. The Far Right Meets the Far Out is one of the strongest chapters, capturing how wellness influencers, new age spirituality, and anti-establishment politics have merged in surprising ways. Another standout, Calm Conspiracy Capitalism, lays out how a market has emerged to exploit people’s fears — selling them overpriced supplements, prepper kits, and dubious self-help programs. Klein is at her best when she’s mapping out these strange cultural intersections.
However, she has a notable blind spot when it comes to COVID-era policies. Given that she wrote The Shock Doctrine, I expected a more thorough critique of how pharmaceutical companies profited off the crisis and how civil liberties were curtailed in ways that still haven’t fully been reckoned with. She touches on it but rarely digs deep enough. Skepticism of vaccine passports for example, she paints as a sort of schizophrenic paranoia, but these systems could very easily be repurposed for surveillance — this isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s a real possibility. The pandemic left people deeply disoriented, and much of that was due to arbitrary rules that undermined public trust. You could sit maskless in a restaurant but had to wear one while standing. Schools were closed, but casinos and strip clubs were open. Liquor stores were essential, but churches weren’t. The idea that “science” was the only valid guiding principle sidelined community, faith, and broader well-being.
One of Klein’s central theories in the book is the idea of the “Shadowlands” — far-off places where disenfranchised workers labour in sweatshops to sustain our endless consumption. But I found myself thinking about a different kind of fear of the Shadowland. Is part of the panic around mass immigration a fear that these same exploited people are now arriving in the West — and they aren’t happy? On some level, we know we’ve treated the developing world terribly. Now, as people from these regions move into our own societies, we are forced to confront that reality in ways we’d rather ignore.
As part of reading Doppelgänger, I decided to look more into Naomi Wolf. By chance, I saw a poster for a Wolf event at my local Whole Foods. The tickets were $80 — which kind of exposes the grift in itself. Out of curiosity, I emailed the organizers pretending to be a fan of Wolfs, claiming I couldn’t afford a ticket due to Canada’s failed economy and mass immigration under Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. A kind spoken person responded, offering me a free ticket, explaining that attendance was low but that it was more important “people got the information they need.” I couldn’t attend, but the exchange was pleasant. There is a real sense of community in radicalized movements — something I noted in my review of The Rape of the Mind. And the fact that Wolf’s event was promoted at aWhole Foods proves some of Klein’s points about the overlap between wellness culture and political radicalization.
I also listened to some of Wolf’s appearances on Steve Bannon’s War Room. The paranoia was dialed up to 11 on these episodes, but I have to admit — Bannon himself is an interesting figure. While I don’t endorse all his views, I think he correctly identifies the sense of malaise, disillusionment, and disenfranchisement that many in the West feel. In some ways, he and Klein agree on the diagnosis of what’s broken — one simply offers a more compassionate solution, the other a more heavy-handed one.
The book contains a fascinating analysis of January 6th from Steve Bannon, who likens the riot to a kind of live-action role-play. He describes how people live dull, uninspiring lives — working boring jobs, feeling powerless — until they step into an online world where they can become someone else. He gives the example of “Dave from Accounting,” an ordinary, unremarkable man, who, in the digital realm, transforms into “Ajax,” a gun-toting warrior on a righteous mission. On January 6, Bannon argues, the Daves from Accounting became Ajax in real life. This, to me, is a perfect example of what Klein explores in Doppelgänger: the moment when the digital double crosses over into reality, when roleplay turns into something with real-world consequences. The people storming the Capitol weren’t just angry citizens — they were acting out a fantasy, cosplaying as rebels, momentarily breaking free from their mundane lives.
So what is the solution to all of this? Social media platforms initially responded to the rise of conspiracies with aggressive content moderation, but censorship didn’t work — it only reinforced the belief that powerful forces were suppressing the truth. Now, with Trump’s return, we’re seeing a reversal of these policies, with Mark Zuckerberg openly scaling back Meta’s censorship efforts. This may not be great for stopping the spread of conspiracies, but it does eliminate the ability for people to claim they’re being shadow-banned or silenced — conspiracy theorists can no longer frame themselves as victims of Big Tech suppression. In a way, content moderation created its own Shadowland — an underclass of subcontracted tech workers whose job it was to sift through and moderate an endless stream of violent content, misinformation, and CSAM. That digital underworld may be fading, but the deeper issue remains: a world where truth itself is up for debate.
Ultimately, Doppelgänger is a thought-provoking book. Klein is a sharp observer, even when her own biases occasionally cloud her analysis. I appreciate that she made me reflect on my own views — perhaps the highest compliment I can give any book. Through at times prolonged personal anecdotes, Klein exposes us to the hazards of the mirror world — distortions of reality, a mass psychosis, and a growing paranoia affecting the population. Unfortunately, I do not have optimism for the future regarding this issue. With the advent of AI, deepfakes, and the Metaverse, these distortions are only going to get worse. As we become more our digital selves than our real selves, the line between reality and roleplay will continue to blur — perhaps beyond repair.
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