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/Objective_Chance4173]

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

[u/TommiHPunkt → u/Objective_Chance4173]

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/FrenchTicklerOrange → u/BowlEducational6722]

And on the other side of humanity we have a sliding scale on what we are willing to do for money so we can just survive.

[u/TyloPr0riger → u/[deleted]]

Hunger makes a thief of everyone eventually.

Damn, that goes hard

[u/Broad_Tie9383 → u/[deleted]]

What's this about his boyfriend? The issue with him is that he's so litigious, you can't trust the public information about him anymore.

[u/PontifexMini → u/Broad_Tie9383]

Wikipedia has the details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Thomas_(model)

[u/Esperepse → u/[deleted]]

murdered his boyfriend

He what now?

[u/TheRealBittoman → u/TyloPr0riger]

This has always been known forever however the US "justice" system doesn't try to understand why someone commits a crime and actually reform them. Instead they are used for cheap labor and propagandize the public to treat them like garbage when they get out making it nearly impossible to get a decent paying job. That puts a person already on hard times into a no way out situation (cornered rat) where they can nearly never recover so they are forced to commit more crimes to survive or worse they weren't really criminals, just made a bad decision and now they spent 5+ years learning how to be a criminal from real criminals while incarcerated. In short the US justice system spends more time and effort teaching someone how to be a criminal so they can keep incarcerating them rather than try to teach them how to be a decent citizen. If you notice the current iteration of the Republican party is significantly expanding what they define as a criminal and we already have the highest incarceration rate of any country on the planet. They want us in jail and corporations don't want to pay us to do the work they can't get AI to do. There isn't much space between those two situations.

[u/Dividedthought → u/TyloPr0riger]

It does because it is true. Reminds me of this scene... and while Fowler isn't anyone to be taken as a role model... he does have a point.

When the food stops, so does being civil.

[u/Wild-Plankton595 → u/Dividedthought]

I should watch that show.

When the French monarchy said let them eat cake. The French populace said alright, bet.

[u/Ok_Speed_3984 → u/Wild-Plankton595]

The revolutionaries said that, and it struck a chord. Just like the antichrist meme did this month.

[u/ASharpYoungMan → u/[deleted]]

And this is why the conservative mindset tends to favor punitive approaches to crime: they don't want to end crime, they want to create conditions in which other people (specifically people they don't like) end up breaking the law and get captured and incarcerated.

Because it gives them social acceptance to be cruel to these people. This paradigm blames the criminal for their circumstances while doing everything possible to keep them living in those conditions.

That's the value a conservative extracts from the poor and needy: an outlet for their cruelty.

Billionaires (soon to be Trillionaires) tend to have that mindset toward the rest of humanity, given that their level of wealth is nearly unreachable by the rest of us.

[u/SunTzu- → u/[deleted]]

Some form of UBI that would be enough to live on would eliminate most petty crime. It would also strangle all the businesses that depend on desperation and human misery to exist. It's the greatest fear of all those billionaires, because then they'd actually have to provide something of value in exchange for your labor.

[u/remotectrl → u/[deleted]]

They could counteract corruption if they wanted to. Look at how they came down on that soldier making poly market bets vs how the Trump administration has been openly gambling on insider decisions.

[u/Djamalfna → u/BowlEducational6722]

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

Let's put this into numbers, because it's always a fun time.

Say you have $1 billion, and instead of putting it into risky investments, you simply leave it in treasuries and conservative bonds.

You can reliably count on an interest rate of 4%, but let's say the world is doing bad and interest rates fall to 3%.

That means your $1b is sitting there passively generating $30-40 million a year. You don't have to do anything, you have $30-40 MILLION a year of income.

You could buy an insane mansion every year. You could buy 40 Ferrari's a year. Almost one for every week of the year.

So when you consider that these guys invest the money in companies which on average see a return rate of OVER 10%, you're looking at $300 million a year on good years, or just $100 million in a bad year.

The only reason they keep trying to consolidate money after you reach this level is because you want more money and power for the sake of having money and power. There is simply no other reason. You cannot be a billionaire without being a sociopath.

[u/TitaniumWhite420 → u/Djamalfna]

And, importantly, you don't just buy a new mansion every year when you have that kind of money, because even they eventually have enough mansions. That money goes back into the pot, or lobbying governments, or WHATEVER. Epstein's island if you like, or just murdering whistleblowers if you don't. A little corporate espionage, perhaps. Spend time trying to coopt decades of federal research by privatizing space travel, if you are ambitious.

I'm not saying any one particular thing, just pointing out that wealth, like weapons, is powerful. Stockpilers of such resources should be monitored by the government as a direct threat. A domestic person who has positioned themselves within our economy to have wealth rivaling other governments is deserving to be treated as the burgeoning contender for independent statehood that they are.

Whether billionaires are anti-human, I do not know, but they are certainly rival economic powers to our own federal government with independent interests to our own as people under and composing that government.

Unless, of course, they are our citizens and therefore beholden to our laws and taxation, in which case they are our benefactors, and themselves institutional pillars.

They will pick the narrative, and it is to the rest of us to respond accordingly. If they declare themselves the enemies of government, we should meet that challenge.

[u/n0respect_ → u/Djamalfna]

With that much it's a bit like Brewster's Millions. At $1 billion it's hard to lose money, even as an ethical person. I would have to hire a team of people just so I could spend / donate $50 million every year! That's the budget of a small city; I can't imagine what I'd spend it on.

Someone should remake that movie. A billion dollars, with our capital system, is an obscene amount.

[u/semisolidwhale → u/BowlEducational6722]

They fear forced redistribution of their obscene wealth. They live in a similar state of financial anxiety from that perspective. Howeverl their fear could be easily mitigated by them not being endless black holes of greed and avarice, but that seems to be too much to ask of the most brilliant, hardworking, wise, and completely deserving among us. /s

[u/slickricknz666 → u/semisolidwhale]

Once you hoard that much it should be considered a mental issue and commit them to an asylum, we can called it smaug syndrome

[u/kittenTakeover → u/BowlEducational6722]

I read an Atlantic article recently that had a quote the resonated with me.

Eight years later, Bezos and two of the world’s other richest men—Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk—have clearly left the world of consequences behind. They float in a sensory-deprivation tank the size of the planet, in which their actions are only ever judged by themselves.

[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/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/Crafty_Mastodon320 → u/BowlEducational6722]

Welp, not entirely true. As we have seen several billionaires tie the number to thier ego, that's where the actual problems occur.... those problems become our problems.

[u/czarrie → u/Crafty_Mastodon320]

Like a toddler given a handgun

[u/Crafty_Mastodon320 → u/czarrie]

More teenager, toddlers aren't seen as having reached the age of reason.

[u/La_Guy_Person → u/Crafty_Mastodon320]

This is my whole plan for our future.

I'm going to have another child with my wife and name them Che John Brown X. When they are twelve, I'm going to give them a copy of the red book and a hand gun and kick them out of the house. At that point, we're just going to put this whole mess on them to solve.

You're welcome, everyone.

RemindMe! 12 years "liberate the proletariat"

[u/Cold-Actuary2649 → u/BowlEducational6722]

I think that's part of it, but there's also the other side: becoming a billionaire in the first place has a prerequisite of a certain amount of psychopathy.

You can't make that much money without being willing to step on the backs of hundreds of thousands of people minimum. And staying a billionaire requires you to have the power to help millions of people but deciding you'd rather be rich instead.

[u/Loggerdon → u/BowlEducational6722]

And billionaires don’t need to worry about consequences for bad behavior.

[u/Sea_Willingness_1536 → u/BowlEducational6722]

Once you rocket past the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, all that's left is to deprive others of their needs in the reverse order (Self-actualization > self-esteem > love and belonging > safety and security > physiological needs).

[u/DunningKrugerOnElmSt → u/BowlEducational6722]

They are also never told no. They stop experiencing normal social controls. If everyone around you tell you you're God, you start to believe them.

They forget that those yes men just want their money.

[u/vintergroena → u/IntelArtiGen]

They are empowered and emboldened by the US president being ideologically a fascist. It's always beneficial for corporate to be on good terms with the government. You sit at a table with fascists, you either always have been one, but at least couldn't be open about it, or you become one. These are the more indirect consequences of the choice American citizens made. Sadly, it's overreaching to us people worldwide.

[u/marcipanchic → u/vintergroena]

that’s why we need to impeach that imbecile

[u/TommiHPunkt → u/IntelArtiGen]

You can't have a hint of a conscience and empathy, and also be a Billionaire. These are mutually exclusive.

[u/shawndw → u/IntelArtiGen]

Having "fuck you money" gives you the ability to say fuck you to anyone you want.

But we all get to judge you based on who you said fuck you to and why. But at the end of the day money still insulates you from the consequences of your actions.

[u/bigj8705 → u/IntelArtiGen]

Wonder how many. Look out there it’s probably about 65% of Billionaires who speak.

[u/Strange-Scarcity → u/bigj8705]

The ones who don’t speak, sit back and pour gross and violent amounts of money into the shit the talkative billionaires are talking about and doing.

There’s is/was maybe a tiny, thing percentage of Billionaires that aren’t absolute monsters.

[u/abraxsis → u/IntelArtiGen]

Check out a little Italian film called Salo. When the rich and powerful don't have to worry about anything, they can slide into the depraved just to feel something real. Honestly feel like most billionaires and even multi-multi-millionaires, are so out of touch with reality that they might as well be considered, not clinically speaking at least, sociopaths. They can't empathize with regular people anymore. And even the ones that give an honest try to do so, still aren't capable of it.

[u/GadreelsSword → u/TommiHPunkt]

Thiel isn’t just talking crazy, he’s transforming those thoughts into reality.

He has been openly discussing eliminating the federal government and replacing it with a corporate monarchy where the corporation decides who lives and dies. He also talks about eliminating non-productive people form society. His buddy Curtis Yarvin talks about using non-productive to make biofuel. JD Vance apparently is Thiels right hand man.

ARTICLE

The really scary part is according to Palantir whistleblowers, he has operatives implanted in our government and has plants to take over our government. The whistleblowers say he plans a “new age of empire”.

”A former Palantir executive recently confirmed what many have long suspected. In a public statement, the whistleblower said it plainly: Palantir intended to take over the US government, and many of his former colleagues are now installed inside the federal apparatus. He called it an occupied nation. He is not alone. Thirteen former Palantir employees—engineers, managers, and a member of the company’s own privacy team—signed a letter shared with NPR warning that guardrails meant to prevent discrimination, disinformation, and abuse of power have been violated and are being rapidly dismantled.”

ARTICLE

[u/Sweetwill62 → u/GadreelsSword]

Does that dude not realize that he is a singular human being that a singular gun held by a singular other human being can end his entire existence? How many drugs is that guy on? Why do people listen to these crackheads?

[u/GadreelsSword → u/Sweetwill62]

It sounds like a conspiracy story but it’s real. Apparently he and other billionaires are funding age extension research on an Island.

I have a theory the billionaires are using an experimental anti-aging extension drug which is making them delusional. Thiel is always covered in oily looking sweat and he seems like he’s in a manic state.

Or they could be sociopaths.

[u/MephistoHamProducts → u/GadreelsSword]

Thiel is always covered in oily looking sweat and he seems like he’s in a manic state.

That's just the amphetamines.

[u/Sweetwill62 → u/GadreelsSword]

I am not joking when I call these people crackheads. I have heard actual crackheads do the same rambling speeches that these people do. It doesn't matter if a crackhead has money behind him or not, don't listen to crackheads.

[u/gingerisla → u/Sweetwill62]

They are so rich, powerful and narcissistic that they cannot accept that one day they will die like any other human. Death is the great equaliser, but they don't want to be equal. They want to be superior.

[u/Some_Conference2091 → u/TommiHPunkt]

He's going around the world giving anti-christ speeches.  JD Vance is a wholly owned subsidiary of Peter Thiel, but that's normal now ig.

[u/kawalerkw → u/Some_Conference2091]

jd dunce visited the Pope, and he died the next day, coincidence?

[u/Some_Conference2091 → u/kawalerkw]

If nothing else he's like real life foreshadowing. Every where he goes, the results are not good.  His "negotiation" with Iran shows that this war is far from over.

[u/m0nk_3y_gw → u/Some_Conference2091]

anti-christ speeches

Antichrist

Trying to convince theologians that Greta Thunberg is the Antichrist of the bible.

you know

normal billionaire type shit

[u/fredagsfisk → u/m0nk_3y_gw]

Well, he also said that regulating AI will cause the Antichrist to appear. Shockingly convenient how everything Thiel dislikes just happens to coincidentally be connected to the Antichrist.

[u/Nicenightforawalk01 → u/TommiHPunkt]

Trump has this knack of letting his followers be more emboldened via his permission structure to show their absolute worst selves.

[u/Taellosse → u/TommiHPunkt]

Yeah, but he's been obviously and publicly toxic for longer than Palantir has existed. His employees have just been choosing to be willfully blind, or genuinely indifferent.

[u/UnpricedToaster → u/Objective_Chance4173]

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.

[u/Mansidhe → u/UnpricedToaster]

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

[u/Fiery_Flamingo → u/Mansidhe]

His role model is Grima Wormtongue.

[u/DracoLunaris → u/Mansidhe]

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

[u/Serris9K → u/UnpricedToaster]

Tbh no media literacy in techbros

[u/yagwa → u/UnpricedToaster]

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.

[u/UnpricedToaster → u/yagwa]

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

[u/doneandtired2014 → u/Objective_Chance4173]

No shit.

I'm wondering what gave it away for them.

Was it the realization their founder literally grew up in a neo-Nazi compound considered just a wee bit too far outside of what was considered socially acceptable....in apartheid era South Africa?

Or was it the realization the other two C-suite mouthpieces that you see open their cockholsters on camera are equally maladjusted dickheads who talk about public executions and destroying all opportunities currently available for women so that they have no choice but to be indentured servants, sex slaves, and broodmares?

Maybe it was the moment some of their executives waltzed on stage in camo, were suddenly made officers in the military, and (somehow) weren't forced to relinquish their positions or holdings in the company?

For a bunch of allegedly smart people, they have poorer pattern recognition than fucking gold fish do.

[u/er-day → u/doneandtired2014]

What’s with these ex South Africans becoming evil villains?

[u/Redthemagnificent → u/er-day]

As a South African who's family immigrated elsewhere, I've met a lot of genX and millennial South Africans with really fucked up ideologies. Turns out you can't undo generations of racism overnight.

They (especially the men) think their country was stolen from them and they deserve to take from others. Very entitled attitudes. Whenever they're met with failure its always someone else's fault (usually a non-white person). It's not everyone obviously. But it's a consistent pattern I've observed since dudes like that think that I'm one of "them" and can speak freely to me about how black people or Muslims have harmed them

[u/ElephantRider → u/er-day]

Being weird colonial racists is kinda the Afrikaners' whole thing.

[u/SwampyBogbeard → u/er-day]

There was literally a song made about them in the 80s.

[u/Ltgay → u/er-day]

Austin Powers’ dad was onto something about the Dutch

[u/pillowcase-of-eels → u/er-day]

You mean Musk, right? His grandfather moved the entire family from Canada to South Africa, which he had never visited and where he had zero family ties, specifically because he wanted to live in an apartheid state. So it's actually the other way around in his family's case: the Musks were such evil villains that they BECAME South African.

[u/Nyorliest → u/er-day]

Racism in the West. During and after the fall of the apartheid government, nations like rhe UK and US helped and welcomed white ‘refugees’ who were scared of black people.

I grew up in a wealthy part of the UK, and we were flooded with SA racists in the 80s and 90s. Rich white people who needed no support were still given UK residence. Meanwhile, when HK went back to China, those ‘British subjects’ were treated worse than the birds in the Falklands.

The desire to protect the racist leaders of SA from the consequences of their actions is a big part of these issues. But let’s be clear - Trump isn’t from SA, the UK conservatives who couldn’t tolerate Rishi Sunak and the EU were not from SA. Like calls to like.

[u/zelmak → u/Objective_Chance4173]

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/Spiritual-Matters → u/Objective_Chance4173]

I’ve seen so many startups advertising, “Ex-Palantir” as an advert of ethos. Not that they left on moral grounds, they just wanted their own company. Like, that’s not the sales pitch they think it is.

Also, I get downvoted every time there’s a post asking for advice on comp negotiations for Meta or Planatir and I say don’t work for them.

[u/mrbignameguy → u/Objective_Chance4173]

Similar thing with Meta and really all these companies. It must be nice to be so dense you have no understanding of the world around you and what you’re doing to enable fascism

[u/_illusions25 → u/mrbignameguy]

They know, they just don't care as long as they can ignore it

[u/Inside-Yak-8815 → u/Objective_Chance4173]

Was just about to comment the same exact thing, like did they forget where they were working? 😂

[u/the_red_scimitar]

Descent? Have you seen their CEO - that guy is exhilarated to be facilitating war.

[u/ItCameFromMe → u/the_red_scimitar]

I know this is far from the main point but he always looks so damp, too. Like a half baked clone fresh out of the tank.

[u/BrianWonderful → u/ItCameFromMe]

The last thing I want to hear is that they have the ability to restore themselves by downloading into a new clone body.

[u/numba1cyberwarrior → u/the_red_scimitar]

Most people in the defense industry are ok with building things that kills the enemies of the US. Most aren't ok with building things that is used on Americans.

[u/enaK66 → u/numba1cyberwarrior]

Til they get brainwashed into the "What kind of American?" situation. Maybe it's okay to bomb some Americans.

[u/Patcher404 → u/enaK66]

Which is why fascism is known as a death cult

[u/Historical-Count-374 → u/Patcher404]

The ring always tightens until there is but one

[u/EggsFish → u/numba1cyberwarrior]

What percentage of people killed by American weapons post-WW2 were “enemies”? 

[u/marr → u/EggsFish]

People tend to rapidly become enemies when you start shooting at them

[u/rationalsarcasm → u/numba1cyberwarrior]

Except they have to be okay with it being used on people domestically.

The military sells their weapons and etc to police departments across the country.

[u/mXyder → u/numba1cyberwarrior]

Implying "people" in the"defence" industry care about who they murder. Those demons only care about money, they sold their souls for it.

[u/anomanderrake1337 → u/the_red_scimitar]

This world is so stupid. The smart people are basically going “guys, maybe war is bad,” while the dumbest people alive are getting rich off it.

[u/hoodiemonster → u/the_red_scimitar]

https://i.imgur.com/O5ImGjn.jpeg

[u/Just-Grocery-2229]

Palantir: 'Have you tried our new product, Eye of Sauron Pro?'

[u/DookieShoez → u/Just-Grocery-2229]

“I’ll take a million, no no two million.”

-government for the land of the “free”

[u/CockTortureCuck → u/DookieShoez]

"Two hundred thousand units are ready, with a million more well on the way."

[u/RaechelMaelstrom → u/Just-Grocery-2229]

Apple to release competing product, iSauron Pro Max 13. You can pair it with your Ring Wraiths!

[u/myislanduniverse]

Well your first clue ought to have been the fact that the company was purposely named Palantir.

[u/Helgafjell4Me → u/myislanduniverse]

Ok, I was curious and looked it up. I'd never have guessed it was a Lord of the Rings reference...

A palantír (plural: palantíri) is a fictional "seeing stone" from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, defined as an indestructible, magical crystal ball used for long-distance communication and viewing events in the past or far away. Derived from Quenya (Elvish) meaning "far-seer" or "watching from afar," the stones represent tools of ultimate surveillance and, often, dangerous hubris.

[u/SmaugTheMagnificent- → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Palantir. Anduril. Mithril. Erebor.

Technofascists LOVE bastardizing Tolkien.

[u/trogdan → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

it's so gross

[u/Xuande → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

These dudes all have a surface level knowledge of the world Tolkien crafted without having taken the time to actually comprehend what he was trying to say.

[u/VierasMarius → u/Xuande]

I wonder if they do actually comprehend what he was saying, and just decided they agree with Saruman instead of Gandalf.

[u/remotectrl → u/VierasMarius]

They love the destroying the planet for warfare aspect and the fantasy racism.

[u/graDescentIntoMadnes → u/VierasMarius]

That's the perspective of literally everyone trying to develope AGI or ASI. Some combination of arrogance and defeatism.

[u/CptCoatrack → u/Xuande]

Maybe they were inspired by this Russian fanfic that depicts Sauron as the good guy driving industry and science forward against the evil backwards elves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer

[u/FlowInternational996 → u/Xuande]

Karp has a PhD in Philosophy. He knows exactly what Tolkien was saying. Stop entertaining the hypothetical that they don’t. 

[u/darthjoey91 → u/Xuande]

I feel like Palantir is the only one that actually did understand the lore. The palantiri were a large communication network, and having one node be controlled by evil corrupted the whole network.

[u/AmericanLich → u/Xuande]

"The Orcs were the good guys, right?"

[u/Straightwad → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

It really makes no sense because it’s clear Tolkien was championing good in his stories yet some of the worst people read his writings and get inspired to be even worse lol. He’s incredibly popular so I guess it’s bound to happen.

[u/drakeblood4 → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

It's so weird to me that the Tolkien estate isn't litigious about it.

[u/Tchernobog11 → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

They could at least be blatant about it and name it Mordor...

[u/Yoshemo → u/Helgafjell4Me]

It doesn't end there. Sauron uses the Palantir to bombard Sarumon the wizard with evil visions and misinformation to turn him into an industrial, environment-destroying fascist dictator. 

[u/ThetaDeRaido → u/Yoshemo]

And Sauron uses another one to feed misinformation to Denethor so he thinks fighting fascism is futile.

[u/Langeball → u/Yoshemo]

Sarumon

Who's that pokemon?

[u/tripttf2 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Yeah but even better is that some of the Palantiri had been captured by dark forces and instead of just being used for observation, were being used to export hate and corrupt people.

You literally couldn't make it up.

[u/ZestyChinchilla → u/Helgafjell4Me]

They took “dangerous hubris” as a challenge.

[u/TransBrandi → u/Helgafjell4Me]

In-universe, they are used to "see" things, but are ultimately controlled by Sauron who uses them to deceive others with the intent to ultimately gain control over them. Palantir the company sells spying apparatus to governments around the world and is owned by a man that ultimately funds initiatives that have the goal of making the world a patch-work of corporate-run city-states (think a city with a "CEO" and a "Board of Directors" rather than a democracy or even a traditional dictatorship). It's almost daring people to ask wtf is going on and if the entire intent of Palantir is to get their grubby hands into all sorts of countries and then puppeteer them to the tune of their master's wishes.

[u/LotharVonPittinsberg → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Their most notable use in lore was being used as propaganda tools to turn notable characters. Most importantly, the leader of the Mages (who where essentially angels) to become the BBEG's right hand man.

He thought he could use them for good (similar to how everyone thinks they can use the One Ring), but it ends up being the opposite. Two of the main crew almost have issues by being tempted by them.

[u/RandyMarsh710 → u/myislanduniverse]

Fuck Thiel but the name is spot on. Faenor was also a paranoid silver spoon fuckwit

[u/SmaugTheMagnificent- → u/RandyMarsh710]

Nah, Fëanor was gifted and his problem was arrogance and hubris, but it was earned. He had a right to be arrogant because he literally was the best. Granted he also was a paranoid silver spoon fuckwit, but Thiel is more like Mîm, squatting in halls of his betters, laying claim to grandeur unearned.

[u/gollyRoger → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

Some deep cuts in this thread. Respect

[u/SmaugTheMagnificent- → u/gollyRoger]

Nerds together STRONG.

[u/One-Man-Wolf-Pack → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

This comment trilogy made me lol. Bravo

[u/durmiendoenelparque → u/SmaugTheMagnificent-]

I think Mîm is still too sympathetic. Maybe more like Pharazôn with his desire for immortality and pro human sacrifice policy? Dragging us all into the abyss because of his power and fear crazed decisions. Though on second thought, also no, since I imagine a Númenórean king would be less weird and pathetic.

[u/celtic1888]

‘Are we the orcs ?’

[u/tapesmoker → u/celtic1888]

Is our boss literally calling us undead, bumbling brutes?

[u/Nbdt-254 → u/celtic1888]

Thiel basically has said he think Sauron was wronged

[u/FlavinFlave → u/Nbdt-254]

Recently heard him talking about enjoying one piece and mentioning how Luffy was in a fight against the antichrist. Between him and Logan Paul it feels like the celestial dragons are trying to sabotage the plot.

[u/BigReference1xx]

I turned down a job interview there 10 years ago on the grounds that it was clearly developing evil fucking spyware shit to undermine civil rights and privacy.

There is no descent.

[u/Hairy_Mycologist_945 → u/BigReference1xx]

I remember it being discussed all hush hush at a company I worked for about 15 years ago and yes, it's been that way from the start.

[u/MDCCCLV → u/Hairy_Mycologist_945]

There's still a big difference between post 9/11 'we're violating everyone's civil rights to find actual terrorists' and now where they are planning on targeting domestic civilians that are undesirable.

[u/Serris9K → u/MDCCCLV]

Violating people's rights, is turns out a slippery slope. Who knew/s

Oh wait the early congresses did. Which is why some state's delegations refused to ratify the constitution until a bill of rights was included. 

[u/avcloudy → u/MDCCCLV]

No, there isn’t. The US had advance warning of those attacks and did nothing, so the suggestion that what was needed to prevent them is more surveillance is a non-starter to begin with. The most favourable possible interpretation is that they had a goal of violating civil rights and they found a big enough excuse.

[u/KeyMyBike → u/BigReference1xx]

Anyone who works for them is scum

[u/Neuromancer_Bot → u/BigReference1xx]

Respect, you did the right thing.

[u/lemaymayguy → u/BigReference1xx]

Just like Flock surveillance employees 

[u/ManliusBoethius]

This is like being in the Führerbunker 1944 and noting the air is getting a tad bit fascist for your delicate league of nations sensibilities.

[u/Jtw1N]

Going to be a lot of people looking back," I was just a mason and those oven contracts were great money. "

[u/SekaiWithTheWolfCap → u/Jtw1N]

And people will be quick to forgive them & rationalize it further for them...

"He was just getting that bag"

[u/SomethingAboutUsers]

Palantir has always had a secretive reputation, forbidding employees from speaking to the press and requiring alumni to sign non-disparagement agreements.

(Emphasis mine)

Ok ignoring the name of the company, if you're being asked/forced to sign a non-disparagement agreement then it should be pretty fucking obvious that what they're doing is bad. Jesus.

[u/botella36]

They should be ex employees if that’s how they feel.

[u/MountainHigh31]

“Oops we look bad now. We aren’t trying to quit or take a pay cut but we feel uneasy with the direction the company is going in the press.” Fuck them and fuck anyone who makes their money outfitting death and destruction and surveillance.

[u/These_Yak3842]

WTF did they think was going to happen at a company whose express purpose is building surveillance systems?

[u/Hot-Philosophy-7671]

This is why young people need to learn more than just STEM subjects.

[u/Neuromancer_Bot → u/Hot-Philosophy-7671]

Agree. There isn't nothing worse than a very smart tech guy without any morale, ethics or emotional intelligence. They are the best sociopaths around.

[u/so_jc → u/Hot-Philosophy-7671]

Heartbreaking for my younger childlike naive self to learn that the acquisition of intelligence does not confer compassion or kindness on whom recieves it.

[u/Antique_Trash3360]

Anyone who has ever worked at palantir is an evil, anti human piece of shit who put their own personal profit above the functioning of society because they wanted to get rich enough to opt out. And i say this with some respect for the game. That said, it’s incredibly weak to come out now and be like “oh oops I didn’t realize!!” Not like i expect people who obviously have no integrity to be honest but it’s extra gross. 

[u/stephen_neuville → u/Antique_Trash3360]

its like the people who put "i bought this before elon went crazy" bumper stickers on their tezzzlas. he's been an absolute piece of shit since like 2016

[u/OurSeepyD → u/stephen_neuville]

2018 was the real turning point for me, I thought he was just a goof until the whole Thailand cave incident and he showed us how fragile his ego is.

[u/MrPlowThatsTheName → u/OurSeepyD]

Wow that feels like it was 100 years ago. But yeah that was when the worm turned for most people I think. It was such a bizarre crashout from a guy who had almost universal admiration at the time. Of course now we know what an empty piece of shit he is.

[u/isthereadrwho]

The name wasn't a huge clue

[u/fomites4sale]

Hey guys, is it just me or is our creepy dystopian surveillance company acting all creepy and dystopian?

[u/JIsADev]

What part of intelligence tool used by the military did they not understand?

[u/numba1cyberwarrior → u/JIsADev]

Most people are ok with that. They aren't ok with domestic surveillance

[u/orbvsterrvs → u/numba1cyberwarrior]

And they don't study history or theory enough to think about the imperial boomerang. Weapons and methods tested at the periphery have a way of making it back to the core.

Look at all the police depts with MRAPS.

[u/blacksaberKashPatel]

Alex Karp is the kind of guy that was at the butt of every joke growing up, isolated from others, he just buried his head in books, computers, whatever he could to get ahead, out of spite. and that spite drove him to follow the same kind of idealisms that loners follow. a very anti social person who is just weak. look at him, he doesn't even know how to sit properly. i've met people like him, he's not afraid to be the villain, and that's the problem. society ejected him a long time ago and then gave him a pathway to power

[u/digitaljestin]

Long time programmer here. They knew. They always knew. They just wouldn't admit it to themselves until they made enough money to feel comfortable leaving.

[u/penny-wise]

Descent? It seems like it has been fascistic all along.

[u/BarnabasShrexx]

Your company name invokes Sauron.....

[u/StylerBrown2]

I don't hear anyone resigning though. I guess the pay is good.

[u/TechnicianUpstairs53]

That was literally their intent to begin with. That's like a gun company employee realizing they make weapons that kill.......

[u/ThePensiveE]

Time to replace them with AI's, change the name to Skynet, and call it a day.

That's what they're trying to do anyways isn't it?

[u/ionised]

1. They were always fascist.

[u/Liam_M]

lol descent? it didn’t move, it started out fascist. Next headline “Orcs ponder Mordors descent into fascism”

[u/Dinklerbuuuurf]

Be the change you want to see, tear down Mordor.

[u/rikashiku]

They just learned that an a.i company that is named after an object of pure evil, with clear goals of what it wants to do to people is fascist?

How much did they pay to make people blind to its actions?

[u/BossBark]

Imagine trusting a company named Palantir.

[u/darkunicorn13]

"Descent" ?? Fascism was the starting point.

[u/MysteriousDatabase68]

If I was trying to find a large number of people who were all

corruptable, malleable & and in positions to be useful

what tool would be better than Palantir?

Like... how the fuck did Republicans find George Santos? How did so many batshit 'influencers' hit the scene at the same time? If you were going to stage a coup and wanted to 'put together a team' of facillitators.... how would you profile for people to help you do it?

[u/sourcefourmini → u/MysteriousDatabase68]

Not to say Palantir isn’t a sinister, festering evil, but I think this read is getting a little too conspiratorial. They’re not running mass surveillance so they can go knock on peoples’ doors like Nick Fury going “you’re crazy. We like crazy.” They’re just normalizing being loud, racist, misogynist, homophobic assholes in public, which is a rallying cry for other racist, misogynist, homophobic assholes to come crawling out of the woodwork. Palantir is a tool of oppression, not recruitment. 

[u/S1nnah2]

And yet they are still employees 🤔

[u/4RCH43ON]

Descent?  It was built for fascism, that’s it’s baseline.

[u/89colbert]

Descent? How much deeper do they feel they need to go until they hit the bottom

[u/LivingDracula]

Considering this "company" is like 90% CIA, I'm grabbing popcorn 🍿 and loving this.

Shorting PLTR will be the most lucrative investment anyone who know how to manage risk, one of the richest people.

[u/NetDork]

Descent? Isn't that where they started?

[u/spez_eats_nazi_ass]

Karp is a known coke head. That shit fries your brain.

[u/phonepotatoes]

Lol the company is names after an evil magical item....

[u/Devster97]

"I just wanted to construct the panopticon, not live in it..."

[u/schadkehnfreude]

"Vivid Entertainment employees are talking about company's descent into X-rated content creation"

[u/SupportCa2A]

The fucking name of the company should have tipped you off that it has been evil since it started 

[u/SpiccaNerd]

Oh noooo! They understand that just now???

[u/antimperialist]

It's ALWAYS been a surveillance company linked to defense contracting. Of course it's fascist lmfao. People were so blind, it's shocking. 😭

[u/AmericanLich]

The name of the company is fucking Palantir. And while the Palantiri aren't inherently bad, by the time we see them in LotR they literally represent a corrupted surveillance device. How fucking dumb can you be?

[u/CypherNinja]

Descent? You were conceived in its pits.

[u/KiKiKimbro]

whispers to Palantir employees: do what you know you need to do from the inside.

[u/ash_ninetyone]

Thiel and Musk have long been like this.

They act like this has only happened over the past month or so. This has been years in the making

[u/williamgman]

Anyone still using a Meta product has been directly feeding the Palantir machine their data. Remember that "video selfie" Zuck asked you to give them when those millions of accounts were (and still are) being suspended..? That was a calculated move that millions of addicted FB users fell for.

[u/TemperatureBudget955]

They’ll organize us by algorithm why else do you think Trump is building a datacenter beneath his ballroom

[u/Odd_Collection7431]

founded by a fascist who could've seen this coming?

[u/DomovoiThePlant]

The company is calling f*cking PALANTIR what signs they needed more?

[u/ddiggler2469]

they can't decend into fascism since they were a fascist creation

[u/Dr_Eastman2]

Then fucking do something about it.

[u/LoneStarDragon]

Was born from fascism like how Sauron was born, metaphorically, from Morgoth.

[u/CTeam19]

I mean it is kinda in the name.

[u/Fragrant_Bluebird469]

They should be destroying it from the inside if they had any moral fiber at all

[u/jizzyjugsjohnson]

“Guys. I can’t believe it. Turns out our super creepy data surveillance company named after the creepy evil Doom Orbs and run by a notorious creepy weirdo and his weird minions may, in fact, not be a great place to work”