Comment by __MatrixMan__
7 hours ago
Obviously, just look at what the Palantir stones did to Saruman and Denethor. They're a corrupting force, both in the middle-earth case and in the our-earth case.
Thiel has made no secret of his intent to use technology to dispense with that pesky democracy problem that billionaires have, and Palantir is pretty obviously his attempt to do just that. It's a reductio-ad-absurdum argument against listening to your citizens:
You put it in the hands of a populist demagogue, the power to apply hyper-targeted pain to their enemies amplifies their darker tendencies, and when evil happens you say: "look, the people can't be trusted." Meanwhile, you use it to direct the pointy end of the state's stick towards people you don't like (because the demagogue is too lazy to actually use those hyper-targeting features themself) so you can interfere with democratic attempts to limit your power without bothering to pay for the pepper spray.
Nobody in their right mind would want their government anywhere near it.
I still don't understand why Theil and Karp decided to name their surveillance tech company after a device that is best known for being used by an evil dark lord to decieve and corrupt. It's like the Mitchell and Webb skit "are we the baddies" except they're the ones who designed the uniforms with skulls on them.
I don't think you have to understand why they made that decision, you just have to understand who they are and what they believe in. Just have a look at what they talk about, and what they are quoted as saying.
Then it will start to make sense.
It'd help make your point to actually share the ominous quotes you're referring to.
Because it's funny and they genuinely don't care whether or not they're bad guys
Well, it's not inherently any more evil than Fanta, is it?
Thiel apparently gives talks about the Antichrist. He's actually a very thoughtful Christian, following the works of Rene Girard. I think he's just got a rather dark sense of humour.
> constantly talks about the anti christ and getting rid of democracy
“He’s just got a quirky sense of humour”
Where does this inclination to completely brush off what is pretty clearly exceedingly weird and concerning behaviour come from?
A very thoughtful Christian..seems his actions differ a lot from my interoperation of the faith.
Sounds deranged to me. Like, seriously, has had a psychotic break from reality.
I think that's more about trying to attract christian rubes than it is reflective of his actual humor
I'm not sure you can describe somebody who supports ICE in its current incarnation, who profits from surveillance of vulnerable populations, who believes in revenge (cf Gawker), who abuses wealth (NZ citizenship shenanigans) as "a very thoughtful Christian", unless you do a lot of definitional work on "Christian".
Talking about the antichrist doesn't make you Christian.
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