Jason Reza Jorjani | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1981-02-21)February 21, 1981 (age 44) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, lecturer, former editor-in-chief ofArktos Media |
| Known for | Alt-right, Prometheism |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Dalton School |
| Alma mater | |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Philosophy,history |
| Institutions | |
| Website | Official website |
Jason Reza Jorjani (born February 21, 1981)[3] is an American philosopher, writer, formerNew Jersey Institute of Technology lecturer, former editor-in-chief of theEuropean New Right publishing companyArktos Media,[4][5][6] and co-founder of theAltRight Corporation withRichard Spencer.[7]
Jason Reza Jorjani was born and raised inManhattan, New York,[7] the only child of an Iranian immigrant father ofQajar descent[7] and a mother who comes from aworking-class family of "northern European heritage", more specifically Irish and Scandinavian.[5][7][8]He is adual citizen of theUnited States andIran.[7]
He attended theDalton School, on theUpper East Side. After high school, he attendedFordham University for a year before transferring toNew York University, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees.[7] In 2013, he received a PhD in philosophy fromStony Brook University on Long Island.[9]
While serving as a full-time faculty member at theNew Jersey Institute of Technology, Jorjani taught courses onscience, technology, and society (STS), the philosophy ofMartin Heidegger, and thehistory of Iran.[10] In 2016, Jorjani became editor of alt-right publisher Arktos Media.[11]
In September 2017, Jorjani was suspended from his teaching position at theNew Jersey Institute of Technology in response to a covert video recorded by Patrik Hermansson, aSwedishantifascist activist,[12] who presented himself to Jorjani under the false identity "Erik Hellberg",[13] in which Jorjani predicted a future whereconcentration camps would return to Europe[14] andAdolf Hitler would appear on European currency by 2050.[12][15] Hermansson met with Jorjani at an Irish bar in midtown Manhattan in June, where the two talked about a future in which Europe embraces fascism. "It's going to end with the expulsion of the majority of migrants including citizens, who are of Muslim descent, generally" Jorjani said. "That's how it's going to end. It's going to end with concentration camps and expulsion and war. At the cost of a few hundred million people."[12]
Jorjani claimed that his remarks were spliced into pieces from a two-hour conversation and rearranged out of context, and that the prediction was a warning of adystopian future, not an endorsement.[14][16][17]
In February 2017, NJIT officials told Jorjani they would not renew his annual teaching contract. In July 2018, Jorjani filed for a $25M lawsuit against NJIT, alleging that campus officials violated Jorjani'sconstitutional right tofreedom of speech andassociation and that campus leaders and colleagues subsequently defamed Jorjani in campus-wide emails and in the student newspaper. Denise Anderson, a spokeswoman for the school, denied the allegations and said, "Dr. Jorjani's claims of wrongdoing by the university or its representatives are untrue, and we intend to vigorously defend against any such claims."[18]
In March 2019, U.S. District Judge William Martini ruled that Jorjani does not have a case for defamation, stating: "The general allegation is implausible because the facts alleged do not support an inference that defendants knew the recording was edited to misconstrue plaintiff's actual views."[19]
Jorjani had metRichard Spencer at aNational Policy Institute conference, at which both of them spoke. At the conference attendees gaveNazi salutes as Spencer led the crowd in shouting "Hail Trump!"[20] Jorjani subsequently claimed that he did not intend to speak at the conference and that he rejected the white nationalist ideology Spencer began integrating into their organization.[17]
In January 2017,[11] Jorjani co-founded[7]AltRight Corporation and AltRight.com with Richard Spencer before resigning less than a year later in August 2017, for the stated reasons that he wanted to commit to the Iranian Renaissance Organization,[21] a501(c)(3) cultural organization.[17][22] Jorjani ultimately took a negative view of the AltRight Corporation, referring to it as a "miscarriage" and "total failure".[15]
Among the things that Jorjani would tellBenjamin Teitelbaum, one thing that he placed a lot of emphasis on was his contact with a man in London (who Jorjani refused to name), who was involved variously inNeo-Nazism,Satanism, andOccultism, had a network connected to wealthy Muslims and possibly members of the British government, who was emailing Jorjani over the particular interest he had in his bookPrometheus and Atlas. Shortly, thereafter this same man began giving Jorjani advice in the direction of ultimately overthrowing the Iranian government alongside those in Turkey, Venezuela, and China by using the services of a private intelligence firm by the name of Jellyfish, founded by veterans of the private security firmBlackwater. Among the other goals of Jellyfish discusses with Jorjani included the plan of creating what they called "micro-cities" which would function as very large and sophisticated refugee camps that would have been built in North Africa to deal with the refugee crisis.[23]
Within this set up the person of contact for Jorjani specifically was a man by the name of Michael Bagley, who was a former aide for the Democratic senatorPatty Murray, and based on the advice of the unnamed Londoner Jorjani and Richard Spencer would go out to meet with Bagley for the first time in September 2016. During their meeting Bagley claimed to Jorjani that Jellyfish maintained a secret radio station in Croatia which was within range of Iran and could be used to broadcast anti-government messages. Furthermore, in order for the plan to work,Donald Trump had to win the election in order for the anti-government activities to get financial sponsorship, after whichSteve Bannon andJared Kushner were integral to this. Particularly, in the case of Bannon, since he was known to be a reader ofArktos Media, a publication which the unnamed man in london advised Jorjani become its Editor-in-Chief, and since Jorjani was supposed to be a man of direct contact with, alongside Jellyfish. At some point Jorjani would meet the unnamed man in london, when he himself was there for a visit with exiled Iranian nationalist groups, sometime shortly after the election of Trump in 2016.[23] On January 2, 2017, Jorjani received an email from Bagley saying that the US Government funding would be received by February 1, after Trump's inauguration.[24] On March 8, 2017, Jorjani would write an email to Bagley in which he stated he wanted to get rid of Richard Spencer as the leader of theAltRight Corporation.[25] At some point Bagley stopped answering Jorjani's emails, but he received a document from the unnamed londoner describing how Jellyfish intended to infiltrate the Venezuelan oil.[26] In between January 2 and March 8, as part of the plan Jellyfish claimed to Jorjani that they made contacts with the right people within theTrump Administration, which is reflected in an article put out by the pro-Putin Israeli commentatorAvigdor Eskin, who claimed in article published byRIA Novosti on February 2 that Jellyfish had made contact withMichael Flynn.[27] Ultimately, nothing is understood to have been achieved in Jorjani's relationship with Jellyfish, since Michael Bagley was arrested by theFBI and Steve Bannon reportedly had never heard of him.[28]
Furthermore, according to Teitelbaum the unnamed Londoner who he speaks of is connected to the Sufi traditionalistMartin Lings and has many ties to wealthy middle easterners including the former Emir of QatarHamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the Iranian nationalistDarius Guppy, who is known for illegally raising money and is himself a friend ofBoris Johnson.[29]
According toBenjamin Teitelbaum, Jorjani presented him a copy of Prometheus and Atlas to give toSteve Bannon as a gift.[30]
On October 9, 2023, in the context of the onset of theOctober 7 attacks, Jorjani sent out a tweet stating that he had made contact withAvigdor Lieberman back in 2018, persuading him against intervening against Iran while supporting groups such as theMEK, because it would be "counter-productive in terms of clearly defining the pro-Israeli, and even pro-Zionist character of our movement".[31]
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Jorjani's ideas have been described by journalist Olivia Goldhill as influenced byDark Enlightenment philosophy, particularly that ofNick Land.[32] In a 2023Break the Rules livestream, Jorjani denied being influenced by Land.[33][non-primary source needed]
In "The Prometheist Manifesto", Jorjani criticised the modern concept of God as a "jealous and tyrannically wrathful God-Father, archetypally identical to Zeus".[34] Instead, Jorjani supported the idea of the myth of Prometheus as the creator of Man and likened the fire that he stole from Olympus as a symbol of the power of technology and science to free humanity from scarcity and ignorance.
In the Prometheist Manifesto, Jorjani endorsed the claim thatCOVID-19 was created as a bio-weapon at the Wuhan Virology Laboratory in China.[35][non-primary source needed]
Speaking at a conference organized by Richard Spencer in 2016, Jorjani referred to the collapse of theSasanian Persian Empire as the "first and greatestwhite genocide."[7] In 2018, Jorjani identified himself as an "IranianZionist".[36][non-primary source needed] Jorjani has written in support ofeugenics and has claimed that Iran cannot culturally, technologically, and scientifically advance unless it restores its "pre-Arab and pre-Mongol genetic character".[7] In 2017, he predicted thatMuslim citizens and immigrants would be deported from Europe by 2050.[37]
He has however stated that he deliberately infiltrated the Alt-Right movement at the behest of individuals who were very close to theDonald Trump 2016 presidential campaign to steer it away from Spencer-style White Nationalism.[38]
In 2017, Jorjani stated that he is not awhite nationalist or racist.[15] He identifies himself as aprogressive and afeminist.[17] After resigning from AltRight, he stated that the organization was "reduced, basically, to a platform for organizing alt-right rallies attended by some very questionable individuals who I want not very much to do with".[15]
According to Harrison Fluss and Landon Frim writing inJacobin, Jorjani has promoted various antisemitic and white nationalist fringe conspiracy theories, despite disputing the label:
Jorjani's writings, political activities, speeches, and media appearances have drawn charges of antisemitism and Islamophobia. In one instance, he suggested that Yahweh and Allah were actually space aliens who enslaved their believers and tricked them into committing genocide. He has openly characterized certain high-ranking Nazi officials as akin to supermen with psychic powers. While Jorjani has vehemently denied the charges of bigotry leveled against him, his public statements do make you wonder.[39]
Jorjani has said that he was involved in an attempt to build a new Persian Empire, which he claims was led by an organisation known as the "Iranian Renaissance Organization". With regards to the project Jorjani claimed that the new Iran would be in a struggle against a nascent Islamic Caliphate.[40] Specifically he has said about this project that it was intended:
to create an economic and security corridor from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and across to the Caucasus. This "Neo-Scythian" Ukraine-based approach to the lon-term revitalization and liberation of Europe [was] linked to a future, post-Islamic Greater Iran via the Caucasus.[40]
According to Jorjani everything that was supposedly achieved in theIslamic Golden Age was misappropriated from ancient Iranian culture.[41] Furthermore, he is critical of the entirety of theAbrahamic Religions, emphasizing that the modernJudeo-Christian West only producesmaterialism and meaningless technology, while Islam has been a source of tyrannyWhite Genocide.[42]
Furthermore, Jorjani is critical ofAlexander Dugin for his support for Islam and theIslamic Republic of Iran as part of his goal to spreadTraditionalism.[42]
In spite of his criticisms of Islam, he has stated that the origin of Islam is in fact Iranian, specifically the following:
"Islam was the ideological equivalent of a genetically engineered virus designed to inoculate a particular population, which then enters a group with a different genome, a population for which it has not been tailored. Instead of being inoculated, this alien population succumbs to and spreads the disease that the virus was meant to inoculate the target population against. TheMithraicMagi and theirParthian feudal lords had designed Islam to work on the Iranian psycho-social system, with the aim of catalyzing an immune response that would manifest as rebellion against both Islam and any form of totalitarian state religion such as theSassanian State Orthodoxy. What was supposed to inciteLuciferian rebellion in the free-spirited minds of Aryans was swallowed whole by Turks and Mongols. Exactly those characteristics of Islam that were supposed to trigger a response to oppressive hierarchy, conservative litigiousness, draconian discipline and sadistic punishment, appealed to the despotically oriental souls of theseSiberian nomads. "Gabriel" did not foresee that."[43][non-primary source needed]
When Jorjani speaks of the angel Gabriel in the quote above, he is specifically referring to the idea promulgated by ShiaGnostics that Gabriel was in factSalman the Persian, a Persian merchant who had initially converted to Islam and traded extensively in the Arabian Peninsula. The reasons Jorjani believes this are because of his connections to the Jewish wife ofMohammed,Khadija, which lead to him befriending Mohammed, leading to rumors that he put the ideas that would later be inscribed into theKoran in Mohammed's head.[44][non-primary source needed] As for Salman's motives, Jorjani insists that Salman was working for theHouse of Karen as a military operative for several reasons. Firstly, Salman was knowledgeable in how to use military equipment, as well as being proficient in several languages.[45][non-primary source needed] Secondly, Salman helped bring Mohammed to victory at theBattle of the Trench and theBattle of Badr. Thirdly, at these battles the Muslims were wearing the colour green and that theMuslim Crescent are symbols that are derived from the House of Karen. Lastly, as the Arabs were the ones who overthrew the Sassanians the historical rivals of the Parthian dynasty of which the House of Karen belonged, all combined with the greater purpose of inoculating Iranians to any form of religious Totalitarianism by engineering an extreme version of it in the form of Islam.[46][non-primary source needed]
Jorjani has expressed the belief that "psychical pheonmena as key to developing a postmodern orarchaeofuturist science that would deconstruct the distinction between science and spirituality".[47]
At the time of writing, in the year 2020, we are already witnessing the first of these: an artificially engineered pandemic. Although COVID-19 was engineered at the Wuhan Virology Laboratory in China, those who invested in the "Gain of Function" research that produced it were Western corporatists, such as Bill Gates. Their main aim in producing a pandemic with such a long incubation period and low mortality rate is to bring about a protracted global lockdown that would most adversely effect dense metropolitan areas.
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