Comment by the_af
21 days ago
Well, ok, people in the defense industry would agree it's not immoral to make weapons, and the more extremist may even call it immoral not to make weapons (though I doubt many would, this is an extreme view. I also wonder if it's truly heartfelt or simply convenient while they hold defense industry jobs, and forgotten when they start working elsewhere).
It doesn't follow at all that the best way to defend Western institutions is to build weapons.
(Yes, I realize these aren't your views and that you're merely describing them. But this Alex Karp guy isn't here to debate directly with him...)
I think Karp would say that events like 9/11 or 10/7 represent attacks on the west by vicious enemies who can’t be negotiated with, and that the only way to defend ourselves is to build weapons and surveillance systems that outstrip their capacity to harm.
To your point about his beliefs not being mine, I think he has a fundamental misunderstanding of how both of those events happened, which is ironic, because the prelude and aftermath of both attacks are revisions on the same theme.
I just googled who Alex Karp is and... well, he has a vested interest in DoD applications. Of course he'd say this. A businessman telling us his business model is a moral imperative...