Chud of the Rings—With Bret Devereaux
Historian Bret Devereaux joins Fighting Fascism to examine how the far right distorts history, Western civilization, and Tolkien—and how those narratives can be challenged.
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Chud of the Rings w/ Bret Devereaux / Fighting Fascism
We all love making fun of fascists. But Dr. Bret Devereaux makes an art of it. Bret is a historian of antiquity and a Tolkien scholar, and he doesn’t suffer fools. He’s been going at it with the world of online chud “historians” — the fascists who say they’re fighting to defend “Western Civilization,” something they’ve never bothered to actually try to understand. And he has similarly choice words for the far right billionaire freaks who idolize, and utterly misunderstand, the Lord of the Rings.
This is a genuinely delightful conversation for nerds like us. But it’s also a serious look into the ways the far right misuses history and literature to advance their fucked up worldviews — and how we can fight back.
Check out Bret’s WONDERFUL blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, at acoup.blog.
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Peter Thiel, president and founder of Clarium Capital Management LLC, during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 10, 2026.
(David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images)We all love making fun of fascists. But Dr. Bret Devereaux makes an art of it. Bret is a historian of antiquity and a Tolkien scholar, and he doesn’t suffer fools. He’s been going at it with the world of online chud “historians”—the fascists who say they’re fighting to defend “Western Civilization,” something they’ve never bothered to actually try to understand. And he has similarly choice words for the far-right billionaire freaks who idolize, and utterly misunderstand, The Lord of the Rings.
This is a genuinely delightful conversation for nerds like us. But it’s also a serious look into the ways the far right misuses history and literature to advance their fucked-up worldviews—and how we can fight back.
Check out Bret’s wonderful blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/subscribe.
The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Understanding MAGA as a Social Movement w/ Bill Fletcher Jr. / Fighting Fascism
For this Labor Day episode we’re joined by Bill Fletcher, a longtime union organizer who’s spent the last several years working to build out the labor movement’s anti-fascist infrastructure. Bill has an important reminder for those of us who direct most of our anti-fascist energy against Trump and the oligarchy: MAGA isn’t some astroturf trick. It’s a genuine social movement representing some 25-30 percent of Americans, and any strategies that ignore this fact are missing something fundamental about today’s dangerous political reality. You can learn more about Bill's organization, Standing for Democracy, here.
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