Canadian writer Naomi Klein’s latest book, Doppelganger, focuses on how people constantly confuse her with US writer Naomi Wolf. Wolf has always been something of a conspiracist. In her first book, The Beauty Myth, Wolf put forward the view that ‘the patriarchy’ was actively attempting to undermine feminism. But it was the COVID-19 pandemic transformed Wolf into a full-blown conspiracy theorist, as she became a prominent promoter of vaccine misinformation. As an anti-capitalist herself, Klein is understandably perturbed to be mistaken with someone who actively promotes far-right talking points. According to a recent article in Socialism Today, however, Klein’s book does not adequately explain why people fall for such ideas nor how they can be combated.
In Doppelganger, Klein explores the effect a shock such as COVID-19 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks can have in shaping consciousness, pointing out that “conspiracies have always swirled in times of crises”. These events arouse and amplify genuine fears about the world, and those who buy into conspiratorial ideas at these times shouldn’t simply be dismissed as crazy fascists. Those sowing misinformation and baseless claims for political ends exploit and fuel what are genuine fears. However, crises can also have the effect of shaking people out of their slumber. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 changed the political outlook of millions (including me). In many countries the fallout from the crisis drove a turn towards collective struggle.
Unfortunately, the ‘bourgeoisification’ of traditional workers’ parties created an opening for right-wing populist forces to take advantage of the growing anger. So when COVID-19 struck, the arguments that Wolf and others were making gained some purchase. Measures such as mandatory masks, lockdowns, and ‘vaccine passports’ could be framed as attacks on individual freedom imposed from above. Wolf and others were also able to tap into understandable fears about Big Tech mining our personal data to make money, arguing that the information collected by vaccine apps could be exploited by those in power. Thus what was in reality a combination of panicked policymaking and pandemic opportunism became reframed as a plot by governments and corporations to control our lives.
Klein writes that COVID-19 created a disparate alliance of “strange bedfellows”: traditional right-wingers, alternative health subcultures, concerned parents, small business owners, and so on. It is notable however that nowhere did this heterogeneous alliance coalesce into a significant political force. Instead we have witnessed the rise, fall, and in some cases rise again, of right-wing populist political movements. A genuine anti-capitalist political alternative would have cut across these populist sentiments. Klein laments that the pandemic did not act as a catalyst for a movement that would bring about structural change, but has few suggestions on how we might organize to make this happen. She has nothing to say about the role of trade unions in bringing about such change, for example.
Similarly, Klein is scathing of the fragmentation of progressive political movements, but offers little analysis of why past alliances collapsed. She also writes about her involvement in Bernie Sanders’s second attempt at becoming Democratic presidential candidate in 2019, but has apparently failed to learn the critical lesson; namely, that rather than attempting to work within the confines of the capitalist Democrat party, Sanders should have built on the mass support he had ignited and created an independent party. Of course there were weaknesses in Sanders’ program, as there were in Jeremy Corbyn’s in the UK. But the building of a mass workers’ party is a necessary factor in advancing collective struggle and forming a counterweight to the ideas of the populist right.
The European Commission’s definition of a conspiracy theory is “the belief that certain events or situations are secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent”. However, as Klein points out, this leaves out the most important factor: whether or not the theory in question is true or false. As I explained in a previous blog post, a theory is only a conspiracy theory if it is not backed up by evidence. As soon as is backed up by sufficient evidence it becomes a fact. There are countless examples of what appear to be conspiracy theories which on closer inspection turn out to be correct. The truth is that capitalist governments and corporations conspire all the time to cover up their actions and the resulting consequences. This is the message we socialists need to get across.
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