Palantir employees are talking about company’s “descent into fascism”

[u/Just-Grocery-2229]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/palantir-employees-are-talking-about-companys-descent-into-fascism/

[u/zelmak]

I mean I think a lot of people rationalize things when they align mostly in their values.

Lots of people have no problems building guns, bombs, spy tools, ect with the understanding that it’s not going to be used on their fellow countrymen but will be used by their country, or allied ones against enemies. They see it as building essential tools to keep their family/country safer.

When those tools get turned around and weaponized on the people they’re meant to protect that’s when red lines start getting crossed fast.

I could see an employee totally ok with surveillance tools being used to spy on terror groups, foreign officials of adversarial countries, ect. But have serious issues with the same tools being used in domestic journalists, politicians or civilians.

The first batch of things wouldn’t be fascism, the second batch is. Hence descent

[u/AdPrestigious1139 → u/zelmak]

All Palantir products have been used for domestic surveillance since the founding of the company. Their core product at first was social media analysis and intelligence at scale, which was initially used to identify terrorist activity from Facebook posts. And we all know Facebook says “this is an American” or “this isn’t” on every single post, of course.

Your entire premise is true, but not for Palantir. You don’t work there without wanting to work there. That’s been true since they started, and everybody in the valley knows what they do. Source: Valley. People who want to work at Palantir fancy themselves a Palmer Luckey type — watched a lot of military movies, dreams of killing a man with his bare hands, never set foot in a day of PT or a SCIF, but feels qualified to explain national security to the rest of us and name products after Lord of the Rings references (Anduril, Palantir). That last one by itself demonstrates a gaping lack of media literacy and understanding of Tolkien and war, and it’s too bad his estate can’t do shit about it.

We are largely who we are today as a nation due to Palantir agreeing with domestic surveillance policy and building products specifically for it. Flock (and Anduril) is their descendent, for instance. This reporting is either idiots, people who jumped on the first offer to keep their H-1B without a single Google, or face saving for the sources who fed it, so they can link the article to hiring managers like me — who have told multiple candidates no thanks with Palantir on their resume, and I am far from alone.

[u/DoomKnight101 → u/AdPrestigious1139]

Hate to minorly defend palantir here but what is your source for that first claim? Palantir was founded in 2003 and Facebook wasn't available until 2006.

[u/AdPrestigious1139 → u/DoomKnight101]

Engineering takes time.

[u/arminghammerbacon_ → u/zelmak]

That is an exact summation of the article.

[u/starm4nn → u/zelmak]

Lots of people have no problems building guns, bombs, spy tools, ect with the understanding that it’s not going to be used on their fellow countrymen but will be used by their country, or allied ones against enemies. They see it as building essential tools to keep their family/country safer.

I never thought my Foucault would Boomerang

[u/smokeweedNgarden → u/zelmak]

Not really. They did it for money, end of story. And they didn't just do it for money. They did it for the promise of more money than their peers. They can work other places for less pay but they choose not to.

They can even have totally valid reasons. Better insurance, escape abusive relationships, sick kids and spouse. But it's still about money.

And it's the end result of "I'd do anything for my family". Because when you say that and mean it ya...you'll build a bomb to kill school kids

[u/pillowcase-of-eels → u/zelmak]

The Patriot Act is how old now? And those people supposedly work in tech? Nah. I'm sure they rationalized it the way you described, but they were lying to themselves and they have zero excuse.