Naomi Klein
This changes everything
Climate justice against disaster capitalism.
Progressive Eco-SocialistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Eco-Socialist hall →- Role
- Author & activist
- Era
- b. 1970
- Region
- Canada
- Social band
- Progressive
- Placement
- −72 · −46 · +75
§ Where Naomi Klein stands
3 axesKlein argues that deregulated, extractive capitalism lies at the root of the climate crisis. The Shock Doctrine (2007) traces Milton Friedman's free-market prescriptions through crisis after crisis, and This Changes Everything (2014) calls for public and community ownership of energy, higher taxes on polluters and the wealthy, and an end to fossil-fuel expansion, putting her firmly on the eco-socialist left.
Klein's politics are movement-driven rather than state-centred: This Changes Everything celebrates 'Blockadia', the grassroots resistance to pipelines and mines often led by local and Indigenous communities. The Shock Doctrine criticised the post-2001 boom in security and surveillance, and her proposals favour decentralised, democratically controlled energy over top-down management.
Klein is strongly progressive, joining environmentalism to feminism, anti-racism and support for Indigenous land rights and migrants. The 2015 Leap Manifesto she helped draft called for respecting Indigenous rights and welcoming far more refugees and migrants, and Doppelganger (2023) examines how conspiracy culture and the far right exploited the Covid-19 pandemic.
How close are you to Naomi Klein?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingNaomi Klein (b. 1970) is a Canadian journalist and author, born in Montreal to American parents who moved to Canada during the Vietnam War. She rose to prominence with No Logo (1999), a critique of corporate branding and sweatshop labour that became a touchstone of the anti-globalisation movement, and followed it with The Shock Doctrine (2007) and This Changes Everything (2014). She held a chair in media, culture and feminist studies at Rutgers from 2018 and joined the University of British Columbia in 2021 to teach climate justice.
Klein's central argument is that crises are used to push through policies that would otherwise be rejected: in her account, free-market reforms followed coups, wars and disasters from Chile in 1973 to Iraq in 2003, while climate breakdown demands an equally sweeping change in the opposite direction. She co-authored Canada's Leap Manifesto in 2015 and became a prominent advocate of a Green New Deal. Critics, free-market economists among them, accuse her of oversimplifying history and caricaturing her opponents. Her 2023 book Doppelganger won the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
Notable for
- 01'This Changes Everything'
- 02'The Shock Doctrine'
- 03Climate-justice advocacy
Key works & moments
- 1999Publishes No Logo, a critique of corporate branding that becomes an anti-globalisation manifesto.
- 2004Releases The Take, a documentary with Avi Lewis on Argentina's worker-occupied factories.
- 2007Publishes The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
- 2014Publishes This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.
- 2015Helps launch the Leap Manifesto, a Canadian blueprint for a rapid green transition.
- 2023Publishes Doppelganger, which wins the first Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in 2024.
§ Minds closest to Naomi Klein
All minds →
§ Also in the Eco-Socialist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Naomi Klein's political ideology?
Naomi Klein is a climate-justice campaigner on the eco-socialist left: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Progressive Eco-Socialist. Economically she sits well to the left (−72), blaming deregulated capitalism for the climate crisis and backing public and community ownership of energy. On governance she leans libertarian (−46), trusting grassroots movements and local control over centralised power. Socially she is strongly progressive (+75), tying environmentalism to feminism, anti-racism and Indigenous rights.
Is Naomi Klein left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing. Klein's books are sustained critiques of neoliberal capitalism, from corporate branding in No Logo to disaster-driven privatisation in The Shock Doctrine, and she argues that tackling climate change requires breaking with free-market orthodoxy. She works as a writer and organiser rather than a party politician, backing movements such as the Leap Manifesto and the Green New Deal. Her emphasis on decentralised, movement-led change sets her apart from older, state-centred socialist traditions.
What is Naomi Klein's 'shock doctrine'?
It is her theory that governments and corporations exploit moments of collective shock, such as coups, wars and natural disasters, to impose unpopular free-market policies while the public is disoriented. In The Shock Doctrine (2007) Klein traces the pattern from Pinochet's Chile after 1973 to post-invasion Iraq and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, linking it to Milton Friedman's view that only a crisis produces real change. Economists and historians have disputed parts of her account, but the phrase has entered political vocabulary.
Which minds are closest to Naomi Klein?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Naomi Klein are Lauren Olamina (98% alike), Vandana Shiva (97% alike) and Murray Bookchin (96% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (0% alike).