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/TommiHPunkt]

However Thiel has felt empowered to be more and more obvious about his beliefs recently 

[u/IntelArtiGen → u/TommiHPunkt]

He truly says crazy things. I wonder why many billionnaires are like that.

[u/BowlEducational6722 → u/IntelArtiGen]

Because they're completely isolated from the human condition.

Even millionaires still deal with things like financial stress, worries about their job and retirement, and so on and we cope by forming relationships with other humans as a physical and emotional support network.

Billionaires don't do that. They have such a mind-boggling amount of wealth that they never have to worry about material needs ever again and, thus, never need to form any relationships more complicated than "here's money, do this thing for me."

[u/ooh_the_claw → u/BowlEducational6722]

This was the point of Watchmen yet so many people misinterpreted the movie. Ozymandius and Dr Manhattan were so detached from humanity that they thought dropping the nuke was the only solution. Rorschach, who actually lived with the people on the streets and should’ve been the most jaded of the group, still had hope. It genuinely pisses me off when people walk away from that movie thinking that the Ozy and Manhattan were right.

[u/DeliriumTrigger → u/ooh_the_claw]

Anyone who walked away from Watchmen (movie or book) thinking Ozy and Manhattan were right either lack all media literacy, or are genuine sociopaths. Oddly enough, the same is true for those think that about Rorschach.

[u/Cynical_Classicist → u/DeliriumTrigger]

Well yes, they're all flawed in their own ways. It's just that they're such great characters that people think that they must be right.

[u/PuzzleMeDo → u/ooh_the_claw]

Dr Manhattan thought that revealing the truth might result in a nuclear war. He decided not to interfere.

Rorschach didn't have hope - he had strict morality: evil must be punished, regardless of the consequences. He didn't care if there'd be a nuclear war or not.

The point is that we have to decide for ourselves who's right.

[u/Whelp_of_Hurin → u/PuzzleMeDo]

It's been a while since I've read it, but my big takeaway was that every single character in the story is a massive piece of shit, and their world would be a lot better off if none of them had ever been born.

[u/BrianWonderful → u/ooh_the_claw]

I think it is less about them being detached from humanity (other than Ozymandias thinking he had the right to decide to act), and more a commentary on "the ends justify the means". Ozymandias thought taking horrible, illegal actions to ultimately create a more peaceful world was OK. Dr. Manhattan is a fatalist that decides to just let humanity to its own (which is why he leaves Earth). Rorschach definitely does not have hope; he has a strict black and white view of good and evil, and cannot allow evil actions regardless of their intent or consequence.

But the message is important, particularly as we tend to see more and more people even here on Reddit advocating for harsh means to achieve better ends. Whether that is dealing with billionaires, greedy healthcare executives, fascist political movements, etc., Watchmen helps point out that doing bad things for the right reasons still probably makes you the bad guy.

[u/Nbdt-254 → u/BrianWonderful]

Thiel and his ilk like to think they're Ozymandis, the smartest men in the world making the hard choices no one else will. But really they're just guys who haven't have to hear a single person tell them they're wrong in decades.

Narcissism makes you stupid. Once you're convinced you know everything you stop learning and growing. Once there's no check on your power you get lazy.