She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursuit of power

Klein looks calm and curious as she delivers this message. She has a ready laugh. But then, she had the same unruffled, buoyant delivery when I interviewed her on stage in Manchester for Doppelgänger, her 2023 book in which she described how the digital world is destroying our connection to reality, and one another. In 1999, when her breakthrough work No Logo was published, she seemed exhilaratingly certain, at 29, that neoliberalism was bringing harm that we couldn’t yet even see the extent of, and nonetheless appeared centred and happy in the world. Somehow she manages to maintain this attitude, even though the news she delivers is always so convincingly, unbelievably bad.

End Times Fascism describes the world we’re in, where the components of authoritarianism are modelled everywhere you look: anarcho-libertarian economics in Argentina, the destruction of a free press in Russia, the erosion of democratic institutions in Hungary (until Viktor Orbán was deposed), “anti-immigrant neofascism” in Italy, the weaponisation of trans identity by Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Islamophobia in Modi’s India. But this is fascism with a difference. Its proponents are actively willing an apocalypse, or a wave of interconnected apocalypses brought forth by climate change and financial chaos, to hasten us towards a post-democratic world in which only a rich few survive to prosper.

This book started as an article in the Guardian, “which went totally viral,” Klein says. “Astra and I knew there was a lot more reporting to do, but on a personal level, did we want to spend the next year in the minds of these people, in these cultures? Then Astra said, ‘I’m down the rabbit hole, I’m gonna be listening to these guys anyway. So I may as well feel like I’m doing something about it.’ This is the reason it’s the first book I’ve co-written. When you go to dark, scary places, it’s nice to bring a friend.” Astra Taylor is also a writer, activist and documentary maker, and founded the Debt Collective, a fascinating experiment in building structured, quasi-unionised solidarity around personal debt, with the long term goals of abolishing student tuition fees, nationalising healthcare and building tenant power.

Naomi Klein is a badass

    • chloroken@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      22 days ago

      And there it is, the capitulation.

      What am I making up? That youre a bigot? It’s apparent. That socialists hate this author? It’s evident. That you’re a liberal? You’ve made that crystal clear. That you have no business having this argument? It’s obvious.

      Thanks for trying.

        • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          22 days ago

          Yep:

          • no argument, only proclamations
          • intentionally misreads replies
          • repetition of vitriol ad nauseum
          • accusations based on lies
          • dogmatism based in social divisions
          • claims of purity
          • endless aggressive insults
          • defense of tyranny

          Yeah it’s like trying to have a conversation with MAGA. It’s a pigeon strutting all over the board knocking over pieces and declaring victory.

          When the revolutions come, guess who is eager to put dissenters against the wall? Even those who helped. History knows.

          • chloroken@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            22 days ago

            Haha, and you said I was making shit up? Come on, you’re like a caricature at this point. Liberals, man. Projection runs deep. You’ve still not engaged with the linked hexbear thread. I wonder why?

            Also half your list is you just being upset I won’t be civil with you. I owe you exactly zero civility, chucklefuck. I do not respect you nor your ideas that I’ve thoroughly addressed. The author is a shitlib, no amount of whinging for manners is going to change that.

        • chloroken@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          And to think… if you hadn’t had wrote this innocent little comment, you’d still have your Lemmy account.

          Thanks for playing. You lose.

        • chloroken@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          22 days ago

          My movement? You mean… Marxist-Leninism? The thing that billions of people are right now? So niche.

          Socialist ideology is only unapproachable from fascists who have everything to lose. Working class people, when educated on historical materialism, have everything to gain.

          Edit: https://lemmy.today/comment/26557727

          Lmao, okay, got it. Hilarious.