Not trying to be contrarian here, but I don’t get the problem. What’s wrong with Palantir producing weapons or military intelligence? How is it different from making guns?
Is the problem what those things are used for, or is it the way Palantir does it?
Palantir aggregates immorally collected advertisement data and de-anonymizes it before selling it to the government. It's abuse of a dual-use data source that has no opt-out for any free citizen; maybe that concerns you, maybe it doesn't.
Their biggest issue is their leadership, though. If Alex Karp had two ounces of morality to rub together then it might be an easier pill to swallow, but instead he harps about how proud they are to kill people with AdSense data. It feels like the immorality is the point.
It's because there's a built-in conflict of interest in most for-profit companies.
It's in a business' best interest to maximize demand for its products. Which is mostly fine for society, country, and the world by large if you're selling paper cups.
However, if you want to sell more weapons you are interested in lobbying for events that increase the consumption of weapons, in other words: wars.
I think fewer people would care about Palantir (and several other notable companies) if their CEOs/founders weren't using the company as a platform for their own ambitions and ideologies.
For me, it's the blur between who makes decisions. I don't love our government making decisions about who lives or dies, but I much prefer decisions to be made by a/ a human b/ one who isn't beholden to shareholders.
Allowing private-sector warfare manufacturers creates a profit motive for warfare, surveillance etc. It’s in palantir’s (or Raytheon, or Northrop, or BAH…), and their stockholders’, economic interest to promote and extend conflict. Many people think this is bad (including me).
Look at what's happening in Lebanon, Palestine, Iran. Everyone involved in helping with those mass murders is evil.
Edit: I see I'm being downvoted. What is your argument in favor of this? How big of a degenerate, amoral, psychopath do you have to be to justify this?
"Israel has carried out at least 37 attacks against healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, including against the state civil defence and Lebanese Red Cross, since the current hostilities began, Lebanese authorities said.
The war in Lebanon started on 2 March after Hezbollah launched a volley of rockets at Israel, triggering a swift Israeli bombing campaign across the country. Fighting has since escalated, with Hezbollah continuing its rocket fire and Israeli troops invading south Lebanon.
At least 826 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes, according to the ministry of health, and about 1 million have been displaced."
Well, as the saying goes, guns don't kill people, people kill people. But now, thanks to companies like Palantir, we can essentially make guns that actually do kill people.
You don't see a problem with a private company selling software as a service to spy on and bomb people? Guys I know we've known about this shit at least since Snowden, but this is not normal and not how things should be run. When you accept these problems as normal modus operandi, you are actually enabling it.
I would unhumorously vote "humans", myself, but even without that, Trump is high on the list. Demagoguery without let or hindrance, addressing a demographic without shame (and now we're back to humans).
Sad to see this flagged. Articles like these are exactly why I come to HN. Technology does not exist in a moral vacuum! You cannot reasonably keep "politics" away from this site when large tech companies are actively involved in killing people and destroying democracy.
1. Certain users do not like "political" topics on the front page. But as I said, the very idea of "apolitical" tech news is naive, especially in times like these.
2. Some users want to suppress it because it goes against their own political interests.
Either way, it's a gross misuse of the flag button. I am wondering: are there any consequences for wrongly flagging submissions?
Unfortuantely, while I do come here for these kinds of discussions, it's moistly because I've excised the sociopathic and nationalistic folks from much of my medua and it's much easier to find those values among wanna-be venture capitalists.
I "value" their opinions insofar as they have an outsized influence on our world:
I feel like if I want to stay tapped into the progress folks are making on building the Torment Nexus, this website is where I will find folks breathlessly cheering it on.
"You're attacking the person who's protecting you – idiot. [..] You may hate this, but there's one person protecting your rights to be a conspiracy theorist that actually has a seat at the table, and that person is me. [..] You may not want to hear that truth, but it's fucking true."
The way Alex Karp views himself is scary; he gives himself (and his company) carte blanche when it comes to morality. He's basically become the Jack Nicholson character from A Few Good Men.
Yes, America needs technology to succeed. But it can't be unchecked.
You're misreading the hesitation about going into places like Iran.
It's not because we think the regime is/was good, but rather because of the completely predictable next 10-50 years of shit we're going to experience as a result.
Regime change is hard and oftentimes has the opposite effect of what you want. For example, see the current Iran regime.
Poor sod. Just imagine the inferiority complexes he must have to be afraid of liberal, democratic women. He’s also a prime example of how a supposedly solid education (Haverford, Stanford, Habermas) or DEI parents don’t necessarily guarantee a well-rounded upbringing.
He said that before he went to Germany, he had underestimated just how German his upbringing had been. I dare not ask what exactly that means.
There are always companies profiting from war. When ypu sre one of those, take the money, work silently. But being loud about being proud to be part of a war… this is just disgusting.
That’s not the operative principle in a democracy where people with many different moral ideologies must cooperate under the banner of a single government.
60 comments
Is the problem what those things are used for, or is it the way Palantir does it?
Their biggest issue is their leadership, though. If Alex Karp had two ounces of morality to rub together then it might be an easier pill to swallow, but instead he harps about how proud they are to kill people with AdSense data. It feels like the immorality is the point.
It's in a business' best interest to maximize demand for its products. Which is mostly fine for society, country, and the world by large if you're selling paper cups.
However, if you want to sell more weapons you are interested in lobbying for events that increase the consumption of weapons, in other words: wars.
See the problem yet?
Read that speech. Read “War is a racket” by Smedly Butler.
Do you think it’s a good thing that Palantir execs (Shankar and Bob Mcgrew, now at openAI) have been made Lt Cols of the U.S. Army?
They aren’t just making guns or information systems. They’re running the show and profiting on it.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164460/1a-army-07-03-2025
Edit: I see I'm being downvoted. What is your argument in favor of this? How big of a degenerate, amoral, psychopath do you have to be to justify this?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/14/lebanon-israel...
"Israel has carried out at least 37 attacks against healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, including against the state civil defence and Lebanese Red Cross, since the current hostilities began, Lebanese authorities said.
The war in Lebanon started on 2 March after Hezbollah launched a volley of rockets at Israel, triggering a swift Israeli bombing campaign across the country. Fighting has since escalated, with Hezbollah continuing its rocket fire and Israeli troops invading south Lebanon.
At least 826 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes, according to the ministry of health, and about 1 million have been displaced."
> > What’s wrong with Palantir producing weapons or military intelligence? How is it different from making guns?
Palantir leadership has a long history of needing to be cruel and antisocial in a very loud way in order to feel alive .
> How is it different from making guns?
It doesn't have to be! Being an arms dealer is also a moral failing.
1. Certain users do not like "political" topics on the front page. But as I said, the very idea of "apolitical" tech news is naive, especially in times like these.
2. Some users want to suppress it because it goes against their own political interests.
Either way, it's a gross misuse of the flag button. I am wondering: are there any consequences for wrongly flagging submissions?
I "value" their opinions insofar as they have an outsized influence on our world:
I feel like if I want to stay tapped into the progress folks are making on building the Torment Nexus, this website is where I will find folks breathlessly cheering it on.
The way Alex Karp views himself is scary; he gives himself (and his company) carte blanche when it comes to morality. He's basically become the Jack Nicholson character from A Few Good Men.
Yes, America needs technology to succeed. But it can't be unchecked.
It's not because we think the regime is/was good, but rather because of the completely predictable next 10-50 years of shit we're going to experience as a result.
Regime change is hard and oftentimes has the opposite effect of what you want. For example, see the current Iran regime.
It's also basically never been about freedom or whatever propaganda people are fed each time.
He justified ignoring the rules, which lead to the death of someone in his command, due to his own moral arrogance.
There's a third option. Someone who understands the weight of the role and holds themselves (or is held) accountable.
> > It doesn't change the reality of what's happening, so I don't think this is worth much, but most people here don't think that.
Where are the ginormous protests that happened during the Iraq invasion?
Me thinks it was not about right or wrong but fear of a new Vietnam type draft.
Now that war has changed there are not similar type of protests because it's the missiles and drones doing the killing
Things like Iran are sadly the exception, as far as my experience goes.