Jonathan Keeperman
Jonathan Keeperman | |
---|---|
![]() Keeperman in 2025 | |
Other names | Lomez |
Citizenship | United States |
Organization | Passage Press |
Jonathan Keeperman, also known by his pseudonym "Lomez" (stylised L0m3z), is an American far-right publisher who leads Passage Publishing, also known as Passage Press, a far-right and "new right" publishing company.[1][2][3][4][5] Keeperman was a University of California, Irvine, lecturer from 2013 to 2022.
Founded in 2021, Passage publishes works from online personalities, reprints and new translations of fiction and nonfiction from historical fascist and reactionary authors.[1]
Biography
[edit]Keeperman was born to a Jewish family and was raised in Moraga, California.[1] He celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1996.[1][6] In college, he played for the University of California, San Diego, basketball team.[1] Keeperman was a master of fine arts student at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and was a lecturer in the university's English department from 2013 to 2022.[1][4][7]
He began blogging under the pseudonym "Mr Lomez" in 2006.[1] He used the Lomez identity from 2012 to 2014 in the comment section of Steve Sailer's blog posts, and then on Twitter accounts since around 2015.[1] The account was criticized for using slurs to describe gay people and Asians and for proposing the lynching of journalists.[8] In the 2020s, Lomez wrote in The American Mind, The Federalist, and an anti-feminist essay in First Things.[1][9]
Keeperman was described by The Guardian as a "prominent member[...] of the so-called 'new right'.[1] and Sohrab Ahmari for the New Statesman named him as an "influential, anonymous right-wing scribe and publisher". Ahmari also noted him as an example of the "Unabomber right", what he called a very online section of the far-right which he said had views parallel to Ted Kaczynski, that "shares both Kaczynski’s yearning for a return to nature and his rejection of any effort to ameliorate industrialism’s baleful effects through economic reform".[9]
Publishing
[edit]Passage Publishing, also known as Passage Press, is a far-right and "new right" independent publisher led by Keeperman that publishes works from online personalities, reprints and new translations of fiction and nonfiction from historical fascist and reactionary authors.[1][2][5][3] The New York Times noted Passage as popular with conservative intellectuals.[10] It was founded in 2021 out of the Passage Prize, an online writing and arts competition offering a $20,000 cryptocurrency prize for selected works. The judges were neoreactionary Curtis Yarvin and self-published author Zero HP Lovecraft.[11][1] The name Passage Press comes from the book The Forest Passage by Ernst Jünger, who Keeperman stated was his favorite author.[7]
In 2023, Passage Prize was rebranded as "Passage Publishing," and was expanded through acquisitions of Mystery Grove Publishing.[12] Passage has published compendiums from online figures Steve Sailer, Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin.[1][7] It also publishes fiction, including the Hardy Boys' original versions, and writings by Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft.[7] Through its imprint Passage Classics, Passage Publishing also offers works by, as described by The Guardian, "radical German nationalist and militarist Ernst Jünger; Peter Kemp, who fought as a volunteer in Franco’s army during the Spanish civil war; and two counter-revolutionary Russian aristocrats, White Russian general Pyotr Wrangel and Prince Serge Obolensky".[1][13][7] Man's World is a bi-annual men's magazine published by Passage Publishing.[1]
Passage Publishing also engages in cultural projects, including sponsoring events.[14][15] Fashion designer Elena Velez, who is associated with the Dimes Square scene,[16] has been sponsored by Passage[17] and cited the company and its founder as inspiration.[18]
Interviewed by Ross Douthat for the New York Times, Keeperman said the goal of Passage Publishing was to "revive what is a genuine right-wing cultural and ideological — I hate the word "movement," because it’s not quite that — but a right wing that can form an enduring and meaningful counterweight to a dominant left and a dominant progressive march". He contrasted this with previous works of consciously right-wing art, which he said were "moralistic", "didactic", "overly sentimental" and nostalgic instead of looking forward.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wilson, Jason (May 14, 2024). "Revealed: US university lecturer behind far-right Twitter account and publishing house". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
- ^ a b Breland, Ali (June 10, 2024). "The Far Right's New 'Badge of Honor'". The Atlantic. Washington, D.C. ISSN 1072-7825. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
- ^ a b Beauchamp, Zack (August 27, 2024). "An inside look at how the far right is mainstreaming itself". Vox. Retrieved November 29, 2024.
- ^ a b Ahmari, Sohrab (May 16, 2024). "America's dime-store Nietzscheans". New Statesman. London. ISSN 1364-7431. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^ a b "Extremism Headlines: Pelosi attacker, Atomwaffen plot, far-right university lecturer". Southern Poverty Law Center. May 17, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^ "Life-Cycles - B'nai Mitzvah". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. November 29, 1996. p. 44. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f Douthat, Ross (May 1, 2025). "The New Culture of the Right: Vital, Masculine and Intentionally Offensive". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 2, 2025.
- ^ Beauchamp, Zack (August 27, 2024). "An inside look at how the far right is mainstreaming itself". Vox. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
- ^ a b Ahmari, Sohrab (June 14, 2023). "The rise of the Unabomber right". New Statesman. London. ISSN 1364-7431. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
- ^ McCreesh, Shawn (February 11, 2025). "In Trump's Washington, Words Become Weaponized". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
- ^ Wilson, Kit (November 24, 2021). "The rise of the neoclassical reactionaries". The Spectator. London. ISSN 0038-6952. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ @PassagePress (December 11, 2023). "🚨🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨🚨" (Tweet). Retrieved May 9, 2024 – via Twitter.
- ^ "Passage Classics". Passage Publishing. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Friedman, Vanessa (September 14, 2023). "Post-Pandemic Dressing Finally Takes Shape". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Testa, Jessica (September 13, 2023). "Should Making It in Fashion Be This Hard?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Tashjian, Rachel (February 12, 2024). "Fashion's problematic fave is Elena Velez". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on April 11, 2024. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Moore, Booth (February 13, 2024). "Elena Velez Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear: Finding Opportunity Beyond the Runway". Women's Wear Daily. New York City. ISSN 0043-7581. Archived from the original on February 13, 2024. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Lee, Justin (September 19, 2023). "What I saw at the Longhouse Fashion Show". First Things. New York City. ISSN 1047-5141. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
External links
[edit]- Living people
- People from Moraga, California
- American publishers (people)
- Far-right politics in the United States
- Jews from California
- University of California, San Diego alumni
- UC San Diego Tritons men's basketball players
- University of California, Irvine alumni
- American bloggers
- Jewish American writers
- New Right (United States)
- Jewish fascists
- 21st-century American Jews