Western liberal democracies are apparently inhabited by vast and increasing numbers of disaffected, dissatisfied citizens who could conceivably put populists in power on both sides of the Atlantic over the coming year. Donald Trump’s White House comeback bid should be the stuff of dystopian fantasy, not a news story. But as Naomi Klein describes brilliantly in her new book, Doppelganger, our collective trajectory away from reality seems to be in freefall.
Why are populist narratives gaining so much traction even in mainstream political discourse? Perhaps the truth is too boring or complex for our shortened attention spans: after all, who has the time to make sense of reality when we can entertain ourselves with fantasy? Vanishingly few politicians keep their promises, which fuels a sense that we may as well just listen to the best storyteller, or the best shit-poster, whoever gets us riled up most effectively.
