Using the Doppelganger as a Tool for Understanding Complex Phenomena

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The speaker, as a writer, found the concept of doppelgangers to be a useful tool to understand the confusion and distrust about online information during the pandemic. They observed the phenomenon of prominent leftists switching to the right, which they related to the concept of fascism. The idea of doppelgangers also helped the speaker and others reckon with the menace of societies having evil twins. The doppelganger concept allowed the speaker to focus on large, complex subjects through a narrow aperture and understand them better. It served as a way to tame hyper objects that were overwhelming and shrink them down to a manageable size.

Paris Marx is joined by Naomi Klein to discuss the problems with personal branding pushed social media, how the left’s insufficient response to the pandemic created an opening for the right, and the fight over the roots of Western society that will shape our future.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and a columnist with The Guardian. She is the founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice and Professor of Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her newest book is Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

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