BulletPointIdeas

Tag: Naomi Klein

  • Some Very Proud Boys Have Taken Power in America

    Some Very Proud Boys Have Taken Power in America

    It’s in times like this I am reminded of a quote from George Monbiot:

    “The primary threat to the democratic state and its functions comes not from mob rule or leftwing insurrection, but from the very rich and the corporations they run.”

    How Did We Get Into This Mess? – George Monbiot

    And here we are in 2025, with the return of Trump and his MAGA nutjobs, more powerful than ever, all with the help of oligarchs like Musk. On the day Trump is inaugurated, Musk does a speech and makes back-to-back nazi salutes.

    There are arguments for “context” – he’s apparently throwing his heart out to the crowd… seriously?

    Some Very Proud Boys Have Taken Power in America - Musk nazi salute

    The worst argument is that he made this awkward “gesture” because of autism… This is not an excuse to perform a Roman salute – which is, in fact, the Nazi salute.

    The strange thing is, as insane as all this is, who is surprised? Sure, the dog whistles have turned into centre-stage performances, but what else has changed?

    The Proud Boys and their affiliates had a march through Washington, celebrating Trump’s return and the release of what they call “political prisoners.” Trump has recently called January 6 a “day of love,” so there is no hiding who these MAGA Republicans are anymore.

    True to his word, and the prophetic Project 2025, on his first day in office, Trump signed a slurry of executive orders that confirm the ramblings of his campaign speeches were true. 

    Among these executive orders was the order to end birthright citizenship (which should be blocked by the courts as it’s unconstitutional), including births by mothers who were legally in the country, although on a temporary visa.

    Trump signed several orders related to immigration, including the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorists, but the most worrying is declaring a national border emergency for the southern US border.

    If all goes well for Trump and his insane sycophants, the military could be deployed along the border to keep people out.

    How could that possibly go wrong?

    He then went on to rename the fucking Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” and reverse Obama’s renaming of Mount McKinley from Alaska’s Mount Denali. 

    Apparently “World Health ripped us off,” so America is leaving the World Health Organisation in 12 months, and electric vehicle targets of making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric have been revoked.

    If you thought the world was burning too fast, these billionaires with their bunkers couldn’t care less. I saw online that some believed Trump would not do this, as it might interfere with Musk’s business.

    Are you kidding? Musk will adapt. He has other businesses. He’s a MULTIBILLIONAIRE who might not like losing money, sure, but he won’t. His close ties to the President of the United States will make sure of that.

    “This is the way our world is being carved up at an alarming rate. Europe, Australia, and North America are erecting increasingly elaborate (and privatized) border fortresses to seal themselves off from people fleeing for their lives.”

    No is Not Enough – Naomi Klein

    They’re also withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement (again) – not that we were keeping to the limits imposed anyway, but it was a goal to aim for. Now the only aim is “Drill, baby, drill” which I always translate as “Burn, planet, burn.”

    There have been many executive orders signed by Trump, and they’re tiring to talk about, so I will focus now on the final few that show us Musk’s nazi salute was just a sign of things to come.

    There will be an official policy stating there are “only two genders, male and female,” reversing Biden’s opposite move that accepted gender identity and its separation from sex. I see this getting no push back whatsoever, as the Democrats are terrified their “wokeness” lost them the election.

    Federal employees will be made easier to fire, which will make getting rid of those who disagree with MAGA easy to get rid of and replace with compliant drones. And finally, Trump issued immediate pardons for EVERY SINGLE JANUARY 6 DEFENDANT. 

    Yes. All of them. That’s approximately 1500 people, who rioted at the Capitol at Trump’s behest after he lost the last election to Biden. Those imprisoned are free to go home.

    If this revolting picture of Trump’s Day 1 turns your stomach, I can unfortunately say that things can only get worse.

    With the focus on attacking minorities (immigrants, queer people, etc), releasing the January 6 rioters while making it easier to fire disloyal federal employees, and voicing imperial intentions on his neighbours (Panama, Greenland, etc), Trump is realising his fascistic vision of America.

    “Politics hates a vacuum; if it isn’t filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.”

    No is Not Enough – Naomi Klein

    The Democrats failed to offer the people of America anything but more of the same. No one believed their lives could change for the better under Harris, so they turned to the only man promising the world.

  • The Mirror World is Our New Reality – Review of Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

    The Mirror World is Our New Reality – Review of Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

    This review of Doppelganger by Naomi Klein was originally published by The Fantasy Review.

    The lovely Naomi Klein is often mistaken for Naomi Wolf. An unfortunate similarity in names and jobs in the media, perhaps, but quite the concept for Klein’s brilliant memoir, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.

    Doppelganger explores Klein’s deep-dive into the cesspool of Bannon and his ilk, weaving their conspiratorial reflection of reality through a narrative exposing a hidden and ignored (mostly online) group of people.

    the mirror world is our new reality - review of doppelganger by naomi klein

    The manosphere might call these forgotten people – a large chunk of their audience – “the silent majority” and they are not wrong. Those who look at our political systems and see nothing for them on the ballot can be forgiven for turning from the propaganda machine of the mainstream media towards alternative sources.

    Many, however, end up in the alt-right spaces online with presenters who cheerlead for turning our western countries into worse versions of their 1950s selves.

    Why This Book is Important

    I read Doppelganger on its release, but didn’t have much to say about it. Now that Trump has been re-elected, this mirror world Klein talked about has become reality, with the old order fading into the background.

    Klein writes:

    “I quickly learned that my identity crisis was likely unavoidable: the appearance of one’s doppelganger is almost always chaotic, stressful, and paranoid-inducing, and the person encountering their double is invariably pushed to their limits by the frustration and uncanniness of it all.”

    For everyone on the Left, who is not a neoliberal and didn’t see Biden or Harris as great leaders for the change America needed, these words might hit home pretty hard right about now.

    Because if Trump is anything, it’s the mirror of who the Left wants and needs for a sizable progressive shift. We need an anti-neoliberal, socialist Trump.

    Trump’s win might not have been a surprise, but it is certainly frustrating for those of us on the left who knew that these centrist morons with no understanding of what normal people want or need were not going to beat the far-right nutters. 

    I feel this particularly strongly in the UK, where I live. Reform UK is going to perform even better in the next election. I can feel it in my bones. They might even cause the Conservative party to collapse under its own hubris.

    That’s the Left’s fault. I’m a Green Party member, but I can understand why the majority of people on the left want to unite under Labour. The issue is that Labour are not left-wing. They are centrists. Sure, they offer some progressive ideas, certainly more than the recent Conservative leaders, but nothing that will significantly change that “silent majority’s” lives for the better.

    One of the most important things we can learn from Bernie Sanders’s popularity among Trump voters (you read that right) is that the Left can attract the dispossessed. We just need to have the vision. Right now, those with the vision are alt-right lunatics and they’ve taken power in the U.S. and they are inching ever closer to power across Europe.

    Why You Should Read Doppelganger

    From popular conspiracy theories to anti-vaxxers and more, Doppelganger is an in-depth analysis of the mirror world we are all experiencing as our reality right now. If you want to know why Trump won and Harris lost, this is the only book you need. 

    I connected with Klein’s obsession with this world. I’ve spent my fair share of hours watching in horrified interest the latest Ben Shapiro drivel or Lawrence Fox’s unintelligible podcast on YouTube.

    I can’t help myself. I want to understand what they are thinking and why. For the most part, these guys are grifters. But there are some who seem sincere. I don’t know which is worse. 

    The part that terrifies me is that people like Steve Bannon sometimes have the same talking points you might hear on Novara Media, or on Owen Jones’ YouTube channel. For example, the “Big Tech” conversation has recently turned into a conversation about technofeudalism.

    Yanis Varoufakis – very much on the left – wrote a book on this topic and the Left, except for some quibbles, see the potential truth in the theory, and the issues his conclusion reveals.

    Bannon sees this issue too, and understands that he can use these facts, flip the solutions on their head, and create a mirror world version of the arguments against Big Tech.

    It is terrifying. But Klein couldn’t stop watching, and can’t either.

    Pick up Doppelganger and take a trip into the mirror world, because one day very soon, you’re going to be living in it, whether you want to or not. And you need to understand an issue to fight back against it.