Democrats have long said Republicans are waging a war on books, banning them in some grotesque act of censorship. Of course, the reality is far different from the Democrats' rhetoric. Those so-called "book bans" were schools and libraries choosing not to curate sexually explicit, LGBTQ-themed works that taught kids about things like fisting and oral sex. These books are so inappropriate that several adults have been prohibited from reading them at public hearings and school board meetings. In North Carolina, a school superintendent was embarrassed after a state representative read from some of those books, including one aimed at four-year-olds that included nudity.
When they're not pushing that pornographic material on children, Democrats are virtue signaling about reading "banned books," such as Gavin Newsom — who has repeatedly hid behind his dyslexia as of late — did a few years ago.
Newsom, pandering to a black audience this weekend, said he's dyslexic and therefore can't read. Here he is 4 years ago reading a bunch of "banned" books (one of which, To Kill a Mockingbird, was banned in his own state) https://t.co/krkZRDNXY4
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 23, 2026
None of those books are banned, although schools in Newsom's state did removed "To Kill a Mockingbird" because of it's "racism."
Oh, the irony.
But the Left, for all its pearl-clutching about "banned books," are nothing if not hypocritical. In the U.K. and the U.S., they've started labeling some books, usually classics and the foundation of Western culture, as "right-wing extremist" literature.
The UK government flagged these books (among others) as potential signs of far-right extremism.
— The Culturist (@the_culturist_) March 4, 2026
List includes Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Hobbes' Leviathan, Milton's Paradise Lost. You may be an extremist if you've read these.
What else would you add to the list? pic.twitter.com/H7V0DwQ5FQ
I've read "The Lord of the Rings," as well as C.S. Lewis, who is also on the list.
Yes, actually. These were identified by a counter-terror programme — C.S. Lewis was also on the list.
— The Culturist (@the_culturist_) March 4, 2026
Pleased to say that we've read 3 of the above in our book club already. Join to read more extremist classics with us:https://t.co/Sg8wu0UzWl
In 2023, The Times said "fascists" twisted Tolkien into something right-wing.
JRR Tolkien’s fantasy saga has millions of devotees, from King Charles to Barack Obama. But a darker side to Tolkien’s fanbase has also emerged. The Lord of the Rings has been embraced by the Italian far right — and this year Prevent, the UK counterterrorism programme, added the books to a list of “key texts” for white supremacists.
So how did it become co-opted by right-wing extremists? The story begins in 1971, when The Lord of the Rings was published in Italian for the first time. Already available in English for more than 20 years by that point, it took Italy by storm. But while many young Italians took Frodo, Sam and the fellowship to their hearts, some on the fringe of nationalist politics also found much to admire in Tolkien’s work.
The far right tends to view The Lord of the Rings through the lens of race, in which elves — described in the books as tall and “fair of skin” — are pitted against lesser peoples like the orcs, who are portrayed as black-skinned with features including “wide mouths” and “slant eyes”. They identify with the heroism of a ragtag group of outsiders — not unlike today’s alt-right — standing up to a tyrannical power hellbent on obliterating their traditional way of life.
Literally none of that is true, of course. The Left has been projecting its own racist perceptions of the world onto Tolkien's depictions of the Elves and Orcs for years now. It's also why the Left gobbles up beloved IPs, including "The Lord of the Rings" to remake them for "modern audiences" as they did with "The Rings of Power" and will soon do with a Greta Gerwig-led "reimagining" of C.S. Lewis, including possibly turning the lion Aslan into a female, despite the fact that Alsan is a representation of Jesus.
The destruction is the point.
The Left's goal in labeling these works as "right-wing extremist" is to ultimately destroy them and to stigmatize (and eventually punish) those who read and love those works. Why? Because they represent the good of Western civilization and culture, and the Left must destroy the West. You do that by getting rid of the culture, the shared identity that brings us together beyond politics.
For years, the Left has insisted conservatives are the ones banning books. But the pattern and hypocrisy are becoming impossible to ignore. When sexually explicit material is removed from elementary school shelves, it’s labeled censorship and an affront to the First Amendment. When the cultural foundations of Western civilization — Tolkien, Lewis, Milton, and even Orwell — are stigmatized as “extremist,” we’re told it’s about "safety." The truth is simpler: one side is trying to protect children, while the other is trying to delegitimize the very heart of Western civilization.
That’s why the best response isn’t outrage — it’s preservation. Read the books. Teach them to your children. Pass them down. The stories that shaped Western civilization survived tyrants, revolutions, and world wars. They’ll survive the cultural vandals of the present day, too.
