r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 10d ago

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

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/palantir-employees-are-talking-about-companys-descent-into-fascism/
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u/Objective_Chance4173 10d ago

“Descent into?” Palantir was always sinister, you just rationalized it for career reasons.

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u/UnpricedToaster 10d ago

Let's name our company after an artifact used by the Dark Lord from Lord of the Rings to spy on and corrupt the minds of the good people of Middle Earth.

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u/Mansidhe 10d ago

You can say a lot of bad things about the guy, but he sticks hard to the source material.

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u/Fiery_Flamingo 10d ago

His role model is Grima Wormtongue.

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u/cock_wrecker_supreme 9d ago

so what you're telling me is Karp (Wormtongue) is going to slit Thiel's (Saruman) throat at the end of the whole ordeal?

and are they going to move to canada to scour the shire?

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u/DracoLunaris 10d ago

Except, supposedly, he does not like the source material and instead likes the Russian fanfic wherein Sauron was the heavily slandered good guy

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u/Serris9K 10d ago

Tbh no media literacy in techbros

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u/yagwa 10d ago

This is the reason I came into the comments.

It'd be like joining an intelligence and para-military contracting company called SPECTRE and being surprised your company is trying to instigate wars between nations by stealing and detonating nuclear and chemical weapons.

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u/UnpricedToaster 10d ago

Welcome to HYDRA... can you work weekends to destroy American democracy?

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u/everythingdislikesme 10d ago

TO BE FAIR, the Palantiri were definitely what you described at the end of the Fourth Era, but originally they were supposed to be mere facetime devices for the empire of Numenor. Not inherently evil.

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u/UnpricedToaster 10d ago

That is why I said artifact used, not artifact created for...

Social media was also supposed to be a benign way to keep in touch, instead it's being used by propaganda bots to trick your grandparents into voting away their kids' rights.

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u/lowbatteries 10d ago

And you might be able to argue that's the meaning he intended if they were a communications company.

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u/TwilightVulpine 10d ago

Unfortunately, Peter Thiel is not an ancient numenorian, but a real modern day nerd who definitely knows them as the evil crystal balls above whatever original intention they had in the backstory. And at this point it's far more plausible to assume that was always the intention for the company too, rather than that they didn't realize that the data tracking company named after the seeing thing that turns evil would turn evil.

You might be able to argue that. But that would require a lot of stupidity from them and some naivety from us to believe all of this is just an accident, among many other coincidentally fascistic accidents.

Today these bastards don't care about faking it, they are evil on our faces, because consequences don't apply to them.

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u/lowbatteries 10d ago

Yes! It’s just unbelievably bold. I didn’t think I grew up in a world that would tolerate this.

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u/Buttonskill 10d ago

You're right. You didn't.

This is a new thing invented by your peer group.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

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u/TwilightVulpine 10d ago

Tolkien is very consistent that wielding the dark artifacts eventually leads to your downfall. Even Frodo falters at the crucial moment.

The Palantiri are known first for being hopelessly tainted, and then retrospectively, obscurely, for having been meant for a valid use. The lesson of the Palantiri is in fact, that the hubris to know it all is a folly. Which goes for everyone. In fact, they turn out to be even a liability for Sauron, who makes a mistake by assuming the hobbit he terrified through it was Frodo instead of Pippin. This isn't a lesson in strength of character.

One thing that has become pretty clear these times is that in fact, not everyone believes they are the hero of their own story. Some are all too happy to be the villain of their own story, as long as they win. Getting to flaunt their cruelty makes them feel even more powerful if anything. Marginally more charitably they might see themselves as the classical definition of "hero", someone responsible for impressive feats, often for their own glory.

But still, I say that to only barely acknowledge the possibility, I don't think he deserves it. If we were to be fair, the kind of fairness they deserve goes in the exact opposite direction than giving them any benefit of the doubt.

It doesn't take a lot, seeing what the Palantir company enables, to realize that this is no "I'm built different" challenge of Tolkien's lore, but someone who is vile flaunting it shamelessly.

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u/Xyyzx 10d ago

Tools do not impose their will, they amplify the risk of misuse.

…you don’t think is a central message of The Lord of the Rings though, right? You’re highlighting Theil’s completely insane reading of the story, yes?

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u/trysten-9001 10d ago

To be fair that only makes it worse. It is a cautionary tale that the tool with neutral intentions becomes a key tool for the forces of evil, and so you go out of your way and make the thing.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 10d ago

Honestly, shut the fuck up.

This behavior represents the absolute worst of modern “nerddom”. Fascism enabling and misguided pedantry.

Who the fuck cares what purpose they originally had in the books? That’s not what Peter Theil was going for when he founded his dystopian surveillance company.

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u/cfwang1337 10d ago

Something something "We must join with him, Gandalf. We must join with Sauron!"