Every fantasy franchise has an insufferable part of its fan base. But this one takes the cake. Powerful conservatives are obsessed with The Lord of The Rings. We know this because they name their military tech companies, surveillance companies and venture capital firms after objects in Middle Earth. Billionaire Peter Thiel has named 10 of his companies after things in Lord of The Ring, including Palantir, the Trump's regime's authoritarian surveillance company of choice. JD Vance has called himself a "Lord of the Rings guy", Elon Musk has hot anti-woke takes on The Rings of Power, and Jeff Bezos helped make that series by buying the rights to the franchise via Amazon. Even the far right even in Spain and Italy identify with the Lord of The Rings. They believe they’re in a fight against dark forces, and that they’re heroic men of Gondor, or Elves of Rivendell. Yeah that’s right: the people helping ICE disappear mothers and fathers think they’re the good guys. What’s worse is that they believe that Tolkien’s Catholicism means he would agree with their world view that immigrants, feminists and global cooperation are the enemy. Francesca digs deep into “The Nerd Reich’s” misreading of Lord of the Rings and how they took all the wrong lessons from the story. She looks at how their behavior and beliefs are more the stuff of Saruman than saviors. But they’re even more like another creature in the bogs of Mordor… **** Support independent media and these long-form videos by becoming a Patron of The Bitchuation Room: https://www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom. You can also be a member on YouTube, Twitch, or a paid subscriber on substack: franifio.substack.com. *** See Francesca LIVE PASADENA - October 1st- New World Disorder. Tickets here: https://www.showclix.com/event/new-world-disorder-10-01-25-7-45-pm BROOKLYN - October 13th Francesca and Matt will co-headline The Bell House. Tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/300062E2C3694548 Get 20% off SUNSET LAKE CBD with code FRANTIFA at check out. Explore all their organic, vertically-integrated craft CBD products including tinctures, gummies, smokables, salves and more: https://www.sunsetlakecbd.com *** Tip the show: Venmo: @TBR-LIVE Cash-App: @TBRLIVE Get your union-made TBR merch: www.bitchuationroom.com *** Thanks to Paige Oamek, Andy Vasoyan & Brent Godin *** Follow The Bitchuation Room on Twitter @BitchuationPod Check Out The Bitchuation Room Podcast on: iTunes: http://bit.ly/iTunesbitchuation Google Music: http://bit.ly/GoogleBitchuation Stitcher: http://bit.ly/stitcherbitchuation Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotifybitchuation Find Francesca On: Twitter: https://twitter.com/franifio YouTube: The Bitchuation Room’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/franifio Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/franifio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Franifio Insta: https://www.instagram.com/franifio/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bitchuationroom.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1 hr and 41 mins