Donald Trump’s victory surprised some, but not essayist Naomi Klein.
Published at 6:00 a.m.
The research carried out for his most recent essay, The Doubleallowed him to understand, a posteriori, what happened.
“Trump has built a much more ethnically diverse coalition that also includes a New Age — health-conscious — conspiracy-minded electorate represented by RFK Jr. and that attracts younger people. It didn’t come out of nowhere. This is what the MAGA movement is about [Make America Great Again] has been working since 2020,” she explains.
The one who directs the Climate Justice Center at the University of British Columbia looked into the sources of this “powerful new political constellation”… because of her double.
This is because Naomi Klein, a Canadian essayist born in Montreal, is often confused with another writer, Naomi Wolf.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Naomi Wolf, in 2013, during a visit to Montreal
However, the latter, an American who became famous thanks to her feminist essays in the 1990s (including The Beauty Myth), has fallen into conspiracy.
Intrigued by “the why [des] actions” of her double, Naomi Klein led the investigation, as she has often done in recent decades.
Naomi Wolf was once a real celebrity in the United States. Nowadays, having become “one of the most effective makers and disseminators of disinformation”, she is shunned by the establishment.
When I talked to other people on the left, I was struck that when someone disappeared from our social circles or platforms, it felt like that person no longer existed.
Naomi Klein
However, Naomi Wolf has not disappeared. She “benefits from a greater platform and visibility than ever” since her conspiratorial turn.
How is this possible?
She is now a star in what Naomi Klein, joined by videoconference in Paris, describes as a “mirror world”. A universe that is no stranger to the successes of Donald Trump.
One of the ideators and most effective promoters of this new media ecosystem, where alternative facts are often taken as truth, is Donald Trump’s former mastermind, Steve Bannon.
He has also received Naomi Wolf on numerous occasions on his popular podcast show War Room.
“He was very explicit about the fact that he was building a parallel culture” where no one would be “canceled,” says Naomi Klein.
“This is at the heart of his argument for why you should sign up for Gettr, [un réseau social] of which he is one of the funders. You know Trump has Social Truth. If you get kicked off YouTube, you go to Rumble. There is also a publishing industry,” specifies the essayist.
Despite the importance and influence of this mirror world, Naomi Klein notes that it goes under the radar of a large part of the population, in particular of “the left”.
“They know we exist, but we don’t know they exist. »
Naomi Klein uses the term “diagonalism” in her book about the coalition dominating this universe, which was born “in part from technological and communicational transformations” and which transcends left and right.
“It is right-wing, and often far-right, political parties that have managed to absorb the unruly passions and energy of diagonalism, integrating COVID-era grievances into pre-existing plans to combat ‘wokism’ and to fuel fear of migratory “invasions,” she writes.
At the same time, what Naomi Klein notes is that this new right-wing coalition is taking advantage of the weakness of progressive forces.
What the left represents today is not clear to many people.
Naomi Klein
“Does the left systematically defend international law? It’s not clear. It depends on who is affected by the violation of this right. Freedom of expression? Not clear. […] Do we believe that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their race or gender? Not clear. »
The essayist is one of the progressives who have publicly decried the identity shift taken by the left.
“If you make broad generalizations about all white men or all white women, the message you’re sending is that it’s OK to discriminate against these people,” she laments.
Naomi Klein also believes that “the new right” is doing, on a strategic level, what the left should be doing.
“What someone like Steve Bannon is trying to do is build a broad, multi-ethnic working class coalition. And he is in fact rather internationalist,” notes the essayist. He is also trying to form a global coalition of national-populist forces, from Hungary to Brazil via France and Italy.
Do these successes mean, in her opinion, that the progressive forces within Western democracies are doomed to failure?
She first responds by citing the example of the Democrats’ attitude on the issue of immigration in the United States.
Trump has waged an extremely xenophobic campaign against immigrants. But I haven’t heard Kamala Harris explain once why immigrants are not the enemy.
Naomi Klein
A mistake, according to Naomi Klein.
She continues by asserting that in Canada, on the same issue, Justin Trudeau has already “capitulated”.
“We don’t have politicians who openly advocate the idea that we owe something to each other as human beings. And the fact that we are lucky enough to live in the global North and that we have contributed overwhelmingly to global warming, to disasters, to wars, to economic inequality that push people to move,” emphasizes the essayist .
“So I don’t think we can say that the left is dead until we try to revive it and present these arguments with conviction, morality, consistency and love,” he adds. She. If people tell us to fuck off, we can say we lost. But I don’t think we can say we’ve lost if we don’t try. »
The Double — Journey into the Mirror World
Naomi Klein
South Acts
490 pages
Extract
“At first, I thought I saw in the world of my double only a swindle with no future. But over time, I had the very clear impression of witnessing directly the birth of a new and dangerous political formation, with its alliances, its vision of the world, its slogans, its enemies, its coded words, its prohibited areas and, above all, his campaign plan to take power. »
Who is Naomi Klein?
- Born in 1970 in Montreal
- In 2001, she published her first essay, No Logoon globalization and the excesses of multinationals.
- In 2007, she published another of her most resounding books, The strategy of shock: the rise of disaster capitalism.
- Since 2021, she has directed the Climate Justice Center at the University of British Columbia, created that year.
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