Reviews and Comments

An empathetically written urgent message for the nation and the world. Sometimes it feels like there's only one side fighting the culture war convincing America that caring about other people is for jerks. I just hope it's not too late for warnings like this to push others to fight back.

Naomi Klein is one of the most important thinkers of our time, whether she is applying her talents to film, journalism, or long-form writing. Her ability to pull together often seemingly disparate threads of analysis into a coherent, fluid whole is as erudite as it is insightful. Doppelganger covers a wide array of sociopolitical issues that threaten life as we know it in North America, weaving it all together through introspection on the concept of having a personal double. She has done a tremendous lot of study and legwork following what once was the far right, which has over the last decade become its new center. Klein's approachable synthesis of all that she's gleaned in that process is a gift to those of us who cannot stomach, say, hundreds of hours of Steve Bannon's War Room. Along the way the reader is offered new or reframed mental models that help make sense of the terrifying chaos taking place around us—for example, the "Mirror World", and her boosting of Calliston and Slobodian's concept of Diagonalism (or Querdenken) to provide a realistic alternative to horseshoe theory.

Klein states that a goal she's pursued through all her work is to spread awareness and make sense of systems and events that can easily spark outrage, but to do so in a way that creates a sense of calm in naming such things and conveying actionable means of opposition. For me at least, Doppelganger achieves this goal, a lofty one considering the poignant reality of rapidly advancing fascism in our time. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in intersectional leftist perspectives on everything from current events to the ways technology has reshaped daily life in the 21st century.

Crunchy brainworm trash like this deserves ridicule and derision. In many cases it is ultimately harmless to believe in science fiction in the 21st century, but they become dangerous and harmful when they're wrapped in self-help conceit, as they are in Gruber's "work". This is not the way to enlightenment. At its core, it is at best a white appropriation of Eastern concepts, and at worst a psychotic fever dream that makes people think speaking gibberish at each other can heal the heart and soul. Steer clear of charlatans like Gruber.