Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World. New Book Profile by Keith Porteous
“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around.” From Talking Heads’, Life During Wartime
In End Times Fascism, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor expose today’s far right as defined not simply by nationalism or authoritarianism, but by an embrace of catastrophe itself. Their thesis, “end times fascism”, describes the convergence of religious apocalypticism, tech-utopianism, extreme wealth and nationalist politics, where powerful actors prepare to survive social and ecological breakdown rather than prevent it.
The book’s strength is its ability to connect phenomena that are often discussed separately: climate breakdown, artificial intelligence, billionaire enclaves, anti-immigrant politics and the erosion of democratic principles. Klein and Taylor confirm that these developments share a politics of scarcity and exclusion, protecting the privileged while treating large portions of humanity as disposable. Their analysis extends themes familiar from Klein’s earlier work, but gives them a distinctly apocalyptic frame.
