Paul got into a debate with Ted Mabrey, Global Head of Commercial at Palantir saying he'd delete his tweet if Ted would say Palantir won't help the US government violate the US constitution but he was unwilling to say that. Part of it: https://x.com/paulg/status/1913729703447241087
I found this reply noteworthy [1]. For context, Gerry actively blocks many, many people on Twitter using some bot. This came up he became the CEO of YC as mahy people discovered they had seemingly been blocked [2]. Their crimes? Seemingly being in any way pro-affordable housing in California in general or San Francisco in particular.
So this reply is definitely on brand but it's also reactionary in a way than many of the purveyors of such opinions don't think is reactionary. In fact, you'll often find they view themselves as "apolitical" or talk about "common sense" solutions to problems. The "common sense" here is just concentration camps and stripping both citizens and non-citizens of due process.
Migrants haven't caused the houselessness problems in San Francisco: unaffordable housing has..
What a clown.
1. People who are sympathetic to these concerns, and more likely to change thinking from within or whistleblow if needed.
2. Everyone left over who are pro police state and fascism?
OP’s post would only fill Palantir with the second group. This seems more dangerous than to fill it with a diverse crowd.
They’re not going to turn around and say “gosh, you’re right, the tech we’re making is going to enable a police state, I never thought!”. They know. They’re fine with it.
> “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule,” she also says, “is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction no longer holds”
Anyway, the idea of this is "evil" is an accumulation of small, otherwise inocuous actions.
Consider the recent movie "Zone of Interest" that was set outside Auschwitz and never showed any of the atrocities. The whole point was that even on the steps of mass murder, life still appeared in many ways "normal" [2].
[1]: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/hannah-arendts-less...
[2]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/18/the-zone-of-in...
A pacifist with a gun is likely to shoot.
So pacifists should join in great numbers.
My understanding of Palantir is it does things like, kinda boring CRUD/CRM type things, but for law enforcement. Like, the police got the warrant and data for mobile phone location, Palantir will plot it for you, provide some pretty basic analytics, but ultimately it integrates lots of different data types into something easy to read.
Is that so bad? I mean, again, I don't live in the US, but this, if I got it right, is exactly the kind of thing I'd hope the police do use. And if this is misused, that's very much a problem with the police, not the software. You shouldn't fix police excess by only providing them with insufficient tools. Just as you don't fix police brutality by taking away their guns and giving them water pistols instead.
But maybe I got it all wrong, happy to be corrected.
On top of that I have a severe distaste for the founders. Peter Thiel is a psycho who, among other things, is a big fan of Curtis Yarvin and wants to bring monarchy to the US. Creator of smash hits like "I no longer think freedom and democracy are compatible."[1] You may be familiar with his protege, JD Vance. I wouldn't want this person running a police state company. Do not mistake Palantir as Tableau but for government.
[0] https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17054740/palantir-predict...
[1] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/donald-trump...
[2] https://zigguratmag.substack.com/p/the-guernica-of-ai-c4b?tr...
> As an example of the evil nature of Palantir’s work, it appears that Palantir has been working with the Israeli military in so-called ‘targeted killings’. Reports have suggested such that these murders, probably in the thousands or tens of thousands, utilised social media information and cellphone tracking. According to a range of sources, over 150 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza and in numerous cases they appear to have been directly targeted. Using social media information to murder journalists using drone strikes is already dystopic, but this is likely to just be the beginning of the evil Palantir will facilitate.
More on Lavender [2].
[1]: https://politicaleconomist.substack.com/p/palantir-the-world...
Alex Karp also tends to publish some extremely disturbing polemics about how 'The West' needs to remain dominant at all costs. For example: https://www.palantir.com/q4-2024-letter/en/
> We are still in the earliest stages, the beginning of the first act, of a revolution that will play out over years and decades... The unfortunate thing, either in business or politics, is that many of one’s adversaries and antagonists will never respond to anything but strength—that crude form of power that does not ask for but which requires compliance and deference... As Samuel Huntington has written, the rise of the West was not made possible “by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion . . . but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.”
And that's an official letter to the shareholders. Like, what the fuck is that? You could tell people that these quotes came from a military dictator and they would not bat an eye.
Karp has a palpable savior complex and seems to relish the idea of applying violence against enemies of his desired world order.
There are degrees and Palantir is not a great one. Working on the Project Auschwitz is not something I’d want on my conscience or resume.
But you’re largely fooling yourself if you work in tech and think you’re removed from this. Big tech are defense contractors.
Working on AI? You’re directly or indirectly working on the surveillance state.
Or maybe you’re working on the US healthcare and insurance sector.
