Comment by EngineerUSA
14 days ago
Palantir is interesting. Founded by a closeted German, run by an Israeli operative, and a 3rd arm of the federal gov. I wish we could prosecute it in my lifetime for the numerous violations of privacy it undertakes, but the world does not work that way. The rich enjoy private jets subsidized by our hard-earned taxes, while violating ideals held by our Founding fathers (for what would Thiel or the current CEO know about our morals, when they have none and are American by name only.. their loyalties lie elsewhere)
Palantir will never be prosecuted because they don't actually engage in any violations of privacy themselves or take possession of any data. They just sell software that enables it. And their main customer is the people who do the prosecuting. For the government prosecuting Palantir would be an admission of guilt, so it will never happen.
They most likely do engage. And they are not going to be prosecuted just because they are useful for government - and until this status quo persists, palantir can do whatever they like.
For the same reasons banks rarely get any sensible fines/lawsuits.
maybe this will end up depending on case law determined by pending suits against RealPage for assisting in rental pricing manipulation. [0]
given the current administration, i'm not holding my breath.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealPage#Lawsuits
This just doesn't make sense when the government is the customer. If you have a problem with what Palantir does, then your real problem is with the government because that's who is actually putting the tool to use. Why would you go after the vendor instead of the government who will just keep doing the same thing if you go after Palantir?
"violating ideals held by our Founding fathers"
There are a whole raft of "ideals" the Founding fathers held that we've obviated, beginning with who got the franchise. I can confidently say that government being the payor for ~50% of all healthcare, and operating the databases necessary to monitor all the money and behavior, was certainly not among their "ideals" either.
This was predicted by many, long ago. The predictions were ignored because they were inconvenient to desires and ambitions. Yet here we are. One wonders if it were known at the time, before we constructed these schemes, that one day there would be fabulous machines that would wade through all the (predicted) streams of data, hunting people, if perhaps those predictions might have been heard.
The cynic in me says "no." At some point, as the streams of politics oscillate, they occasionally converge very strongly, and all doubts are overcome, and the ratchet makes another click.
But it's not all bad news. In the natural course of events there is a high probability that one day, you'll have such folk as you prefer back at the helm, and they'll have these tools at the ready. If you make the most of it, you'll never have to suffer the current crowd ever again!
Take note of every 4th amendment violation. Rule of law will return.
Most of the founding fathers were slavers that wanted to keep their slaves while hating the vast majority of people. When they wrote the constitution they were only thinking of rich white landowners, 80% of the people posting in this thread would not have suffrage and couldn't legally participate in the government. Remember this next time you read words about the "rights of man" because it's not me or you.
The founding fathers would absolutely love the idea of Palantir and if you don't think so go look at who wrote the Fugitive Slave Act, who agreed with it, and who enforced it.
I mean the "tyranny of the majority?" What a crock of shit, they were the tyranny that enforced slavery for 80 years.
George Washington would have absolutely used this tech to try to steal back his "property" from free states (something he tried to do but regularly failed or didn't want to argue in the courts):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhxivf0gmj8
Where do their loyalties lie? In Germany and Israel?
You think that people who were not born in America cannot be trusted / are not moral?
Just the ones talking about the antichrist and making lists of undesirables.
Sometimes, when their account is green and they refuse to interact with ordinary topics on-merit.
When that happens, I click the "flag" button on every comment they write and watch them fulminate.
No, I'm wondering where would their loyalties lie. It doesn't make sense to me that anyone's loyalty would lie in Germany.
The argument is that people who are born outside and come in, but instead of embracing our ideals, seek to do America harm, import bad ideals (like misinformation in the case of Murdoch, hunting innocents in the case of Karp, and racism in the case of Musk), should be called out and shamed. Fox News and ICE have done great damage largely enabled by the infra these immigrants set up. They also seem to promote hate against other immigrants (Chinese, muslims, etc). I think we often do not call out Musk and Murdoch for the damage they did. And given they are not American by birth, I do question their loyalties because their actions reflect a willingness to siphon money out of America and do us harm.
At least the billionaires also act indignant when you suggest that they weren't singularly responsible for literally every good thing that has ever happened.
The irony of a post about Palantir working with ICE devolving into xenophobia about the founders of Palantir.
They will never experience xenophobia in any meaningful way, unlike the millions surveilled by the technology they're developing.
tbh it's hard not to dunk on a gay christian fundamentalist and a coked up israeli boot licker POC teaming up together to deport people, so many layers of meta and jokes to be made
[flagged]
It is ironic that so many of the American billionaires decrying the erosion of American culture were not even born in America.
Thiel, Musk and Murdoch (owner of Fox News) were not born here, and were not even brought up in households of American influence. America is undermined by an enemy within, because no enemy outside our nation can do us damage to the extent these charlatans have done so far
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