Bonus: Hobbit-Camp Fascists
American Id
In today’s bonus episode, we’re digging into the controversy over Italy’s new neo-fascist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the far-right Tolkien-obsessed cultural movement that helped spawn her. From the Hobbit camps in the muddy fields of Italy to the violent football hooligans stomping the streets of Leeds, neo-fascist culture found fertile soil across Europe in the 1970s and 80s and helped radicalize a generation of young extremists. We’ll also explain just what we mean by “fascist” and “neo-fascist”—terms you’ll be hearing on this podcast with great frequency in the...
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Eye of Sauron: Frodo Lives!
American Id
In today’s episode, we go back in time, when the hippies discovered The Lord of the Rings, making J.R.R. Tolkien an icon for the counter-culture, from Joni Mitchell to Dungeons and Dragons. During the 1980s, the evangelical right-wing made Tolkien an avatar for evil in the Satanic Panic. And, in the second half of the show, we look at the first culture war waged over Tolkien by a bunch of obscure conservative intellectuals who instead declared Tolkien the avatar of their imagined white Christian homeland. One correction from today’s episode: Queen Elizabeth II of the UK was buried on Talk...
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Bonus: Review-Bombers and Billionaire Trolls
American Id
Today’s special, bonus episode interrupts our “Eye of Sauron” series to dig into the week’s Tolkien-centered, headline news. We’ll talk about the struggle unfolding between media-titan Amazon and the far-right, troll armies review-bombing its new Rings of Power series. We’ll also reiterate some points we made in episode one about the mass-media ecosystem that online fascists use to harness the global advertising power of cinematic blockbusters. Then, we’ll dig into two fresh examples of this ecosystem at work: a supercharging tweet thread by billionaire, mega-troll Elon Musk and...
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Eye of Sauron: Rings of Power
American Id
Today’s episode kicks off our series on the American right’s obsession with Lord of the Rings. Craig tells Dani all about Amazon’s brand new, billion-dollar Rings of Power series, and we discuss the mobs of far-right trolls that have flooded the new production with waves of racist and misogynistic hate. We also take a step back to think through the larger, social ecosystem that these online fascists have learned to harness in their decades-long, anti-democratic culture war. In the second half of the show, we go back in time to the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings...
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Coming Soon!
American Id
Introducing the American Id podcast. Hosted by Dani Holtz and Craig Franson, this podcast plumbs the depths of the American psyche, using history and pop-culture to treat the political maladies of our moment. Coming September 1st!
info_outlineIn today’s episode, we go back in time, when the hippies discovered The Lord of the Rings, making J.R.R. Tolkien an icon for the counter-culture, from Joni Mitchell to Dungeons and Dragons. During the 1980s, the evangelical right-wing made Tolkien an avatar for evil in the Satanic Panic. And, in the second half of the show, we look at the first culture war waged over Tolkien by a bunch of obscure conservative intellectuals who instead declared Tolkien the avatar of their imagined white Christian homeland.
One correction from today’s episode: Queen Elizabeth II of the UK was buried on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
To order transcripts, suggest episode topics, or learn more about our work, visit TheAmericanId.com. You can also write us at [email protected].
If you’d like to support us, you can find us on Patreon @AmericanId.
Notes
GQ, “Why Were Rock Stars So into The Lord of the Rings?” Gabriella Paiella, 24 August 2022.
Further Reading
Craig Franson, “The Perils of the Tolkien Course: Reading the Readings,” Approaches to Teaching J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works. MLA, 2015, pp. 36-43.
Nicole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Sarah A. Hughes, American Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000. Springer Nature, 2021.
Nigel Walmsley, “Tolkien and the ‘60s,” J. R. R. Tolkien: This Far Land, edited by Robert Giddings, Vision, 1983, pp. 73-86.