The dictionary defines a “doppelganger” as a look-alike or a double of a person. In Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein takes this idea beyond physical resemblance and leads us into a world of doubles that exist both in reality and in the digital sphere. The book explores how our beliefs, language, and ideologies are taken over, mirrored, and distorted by these doubles in ways we often fail to anticipate.
Klein begins with a personal and unsettling realisation: she is repeatedly mistaken for Naomi Wolf—whom she refers to as “the other Naomi”—because of Wolf’s frequent appearances and statements on television and social media. This confusion prompts Klein to follow Wolf more closely, and what she discovers becomes central to the book. Once a prominent feminist voice firmly rooted on the left, Wolf has taken a dramatic turn, aligning herself with right-wing politics and conspiracy theories. In the digital world, Klein suggests, this ideological shift has also helped Wolf acquire a new audience and renewed relevance.
The book goes on to examine a deeply confusing political landscape where opposing ideologies begin to mirror each other, borrowing language, grievances, and symbols from across the spectrum. This is something I see unfolding in India today. Right-wing Hindutva politics increasingly positions itself as a victim, even as it actively marginalizes minorities—religious, social, and economic. The claim of persecution runs parallel to the persecution itself.
One prominent right-wing advocate has even authored a book titled Hindus in Hindu Rashtra (Eighth-Class Citizens and Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid). In the context of widespread lynchings, everyday bullying, and the destruction of homes and livelihoods through state-sanctioned demolitions, such claims appear almost surreal. Yet they exist, and they thrive—precisely in the mirror world that Klein seeks to understand.
In Doppelganger, Klein shows how serious word like freedom, resistance, bodily autonomy are stripped of their historical and political weight. Once rooted in struggles against power, they are now repackaged to defend power. Anti-vaccine rhetoric borrows the language of medical consent. Authoritarian movements speak the language of liberty. Feminist critiques are echoed by misogynists, emptied of context, and turned inside out. Meaning collapses, and what remains is performance.
In the age of social media, the constant race to stay informed, visible, and liked places immense pressure on individuals to brand themselves in a particular way. This curated identity may or may not reflect who they truly are. As a result, our digital selves can begin to function as our doppelgangers. Depending on the platform, this double may represent the best version of us or the worst. On Instagram, one might project a carefully crafted image of happiness or success; on Twitter, the same person may appear combative or cynical. And in real life, they may be neither—existing somewhere in between, unfiltered and unseen.
What makes this book compelling is that Klein does not exempt herself. She writes with self-awareness about her own position, her discomfort, and her fear of becoming trapped in reaction. The book resists easy binaries. It refuses to pretend that only “the other side” is susceptible to distortion. Instead, it suggests that we are all vulnerable to fear, to simplification, to the seductive clarity of false narratives.
This is not a book that offers solutions. It doesn’t promise escape from the mirror world. What it offers instead is recognition. A naming of the unease many of us feel when familiar ideas start sounding unfamiliar in unfamiliar mouths. When language no longer guarantees intent. When the line between critique and conspiracy blurs.
Doppelganger asks us to slow down and look closely not just at those we disagree with, but at ourselves. To ask uncomfortable questions about how we participate in this economy of mirrors. About how easily we consume narratives that confirm what we already believe. About how quickly we dismiss complexity in favour of allegiance.
It took me more time than I usually take to read a book of this length. It is a difficult book, you have to pause and think to make sense. Yet it is an essential read to make a better sense of the world around us.
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