The tech right joins a long tradition of conservative or right-wing claims to possess Tolkien and the one true interpretation of The Lord of the Rings. FREE TRIAL: Try Bulwark+ for 14 daysCONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUALS embraced Tolkien early, when the writer’s work had a significant following, but less critical credibility. Meyer, who had supposedly memorized parts of LOTR, boosted Tolkien’s work in the magazine in the early 1960s. These conservative Tolkien fans saw conservatism as a cultural, rather than economic or even political, project. And as cold warriors, they cheered his rigorous treatment of good and evil that had to be repelled by arms—what Davenport dubbed Tolkien’s “moral clarity.”