Why are Tolkien fans usually left-wing?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Seeing that Tolkien was named "Catholic Author of the Century", and is revered in Catholic circles, I fail to see the leftist interests. Catholics as a group in the U.S. are a fairly conservative lot.

Even that entirely depends on your definition of "left/right" and how you define Catholic. Until recently, U.S. Catholics were more prone to voting Democrat than Republican, and depending to what extent you count lapsed Catholics, there's probably a substantial percentage that still does.

All of which goes to show... well, that at the very least we need some strict definitions.