Falling from the left’s grace is rewarded with a new adoring community

Evidence

People ask me variations on this question often: What drove her over the edge? What made her lose it so thoroughly? They want a diagnosis, but I, unlike her, am uncomfortable playing doctor. I could offer a kind of equation for leftists and liberals crossing over to the authoritarian right that goes something like: Narcissism(Grandiosity) + Social media addiction + Midlife crisis ÷ Public shaming = Right-wing meltdown. And there would be some truth to that bit of math. … The more I learn about her recent activities, however, the less I am able to accept the premise of these questions. They imply that when she went over the edge, she crashed to the ground. A more accurate description is that Wolf marched over the edge and was promptly caught in the arms of millions of people who accept every one of her extraodinary theories without question, and who appear to adore her. So, while she clearly has lost what I may define as “it,” she has found a great deal more—she has found a whole new world. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 332

Categorization

• SEED: The phrase ‘she has found a whole new world’ — the defector’s payoff — is a natural essay hook on why cancel-culture-adjacent accountability dynamics might perversely enable, not deter, rightward crossing.
• XREF: Resonates with the Goon Squad’s career-and-fame arcs, and with Home Boy’s experience of being embraced by a new community after falling.