We’re All Living in the ‘Mirror World’ Now
About this episode
Ezra Klein asks Naomi Klein what her 'mirror world' concept reveals about the far-right's rise in the Trump era. Naomi Klein describes a doppelganger political ecosystem that copies and distorts liberal and left institutions, narratives, and brands, arguing that liberals mistook being deplatformed from their own spaces for actual political disappearance. Her years of being confused with Naomi Wolf became a lens on how pandemic-era grievances, public shaming, and figures like Steve Bannon assembled a coalition that included anti-corporate health populists alongside tech oligarchs. Governing, she argues, exposes the contradictions of that coalition — over AI, immigration, and economic policy. She and Klein discuss what an effective opposition could be: a more welcoming, economically populist politics of 'neighborism,' material climate benefits, and local resistance to data centers and surveillance technology.