The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis • Hacker News Board

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#481

Post by embedding-shape » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

buellerbueller wrote: post #450

afavour wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A broad answer: because America is more violent. The ICE officers are armed and absolutely will use their weapons if given half a chance to. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think any rioters in countries like Spain go to a protest with a bet real chance on their minds that they might die.

This is chicken-or-the-egg reasoning. Maybe the reason such violent behavior is unthinkable by a hypothetical Spanish LEO is because past protest has been so strong? My counter-hypothesis is that America has never really known authoritarianism, religious wars, etc., so Americans are, on average, more supportive of Authority.

Yeah, I think your last point is a good one and something to consider too. Large part of our perspectives are shaped by what we've experienced, and what our predecessors experienced, and if you don't have the experience of walking through mass-graves created by the government executing dissidents, you don't have a frame of reference for that being a possibility.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#482

Post by basket_horse » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

praptak wrote: post #438

basket_horse wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but in that case your rage should be directed at ICE / the federal government. Not a third party software vendor.

The rage should be dependent on the contribution. You mention a third party software vendor who produces tools that aren't even "dual-use" with respect to the abuse by ICE, they are specifically tailored. That's not the same as, say, providing electricity to them.

They are dual use. Palantir creates platforms (Foundry, Gotham) which are used by ICE but also thousands of other companies. Are you saying that just because ICE tailors these platforms to their workflows they’re not dual use? That feels akin to saying some super complicated excel workflow used by a company means excel is not dual use.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#483

Post by scarecrowbob » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

buellerbueller wrote: post #450

afavour wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A broad answer: because America is more violent. The ICE officers are armed and absolutely will use their weapons if given half a chance to. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think any rioters in countries like Spain go to a protest with a bet real chance on their minds that they might die.

This is chicken-or-the-egg reasoning. Maybe the reason such violent behavior is unthinkable by a hypothetical Spanish LEO is because past protest has been so strong? My counter-hypothesis is that America has never really known authoritarianism, religious wars, etc., so Americans are, on average, more supportive of Authority.

So, from my perspective, there were in fact a number of "religious wars", but the folks who lost all ended up on reservations or murdered and in mass graves. I mean 650K folks died in the mid 19th century in a single 5-year war. And that's not counting how we might code the Atlantic slave trade or the post-reconstruction violence, or labor violence into that history.

As a person who has been involved with an riot in a small town, I think that, in the deep unconscious of most folks in the US, is something structure:

"well, there wasn't violence in the 19th and early 20th and mid 20th and late 20thC century... well okay, there was violence but they put folks who were resisting into mass graves or incarceration and everyone was better off for it".

That is, consider that the obverse of your claim might be true:

the violence committed by the US has been so totalizing that it's victims have never even counted as victims and that holocaust so complete that it only exists in the subconscious of white US citizens.

I find that idea to be a very easy way to understand why white folks are so passive and pro-authority.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#484

Post by foobiekr » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

basket_horse wrote: post #413

praptak wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is how market economy works. For every organization doing horrible things, literally everyone is a small number of payment-handshakes from it. No, it doesn't mean that "mr gotcha"[1] argument is valid. You don't have to isolate yourself from society Kaczynski-style to either criticize society or to do something smaller (like choosing who you work for). [1] https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Sure, but in that case your rage should be directed at ICE / the federal government. Not a third party software vendor.

Palantir does a ton of customization and consulting for specific use cases. This isn't like Microsoft Excel being used to track uranium enrichment in Iran, it is a direct, explicit part of their business.

Even if you do nothing else of impact in your life, you can stop defending the bad guys.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#485

Post by edaemon » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

alex43578 wrote: post #437

embedding-shape wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all those things happened in Spain where I live, I'm 99% we'd have actual riots on the streets, together with a lot of other unpleasant-but-needed civilian action, until things got better, like we've done in the past (sometimes maybe went slightly overboard with it, but better than nothing). Why are Americans so passive? You're literally transitioning into straight up authoritarianism, yet where are the riots? How…

[flagged]

That's not actually true. YouGov's poll shows only 34% of Americans believe ICE's operations are making America safer: https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53878-more-americ...

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#486

Post by potsandpans » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #315

andrewvc wrote: post #19

For an idea as to how this gets translated into the reality on the ground here in Minneapolis this is an article on what’s going on from the main newspaper in the state. > In the past week alone, ICE boxed in a Woodbury real estate agent recording their movements from his car, slammed him to the ground and detained him at the Whipple Federal Building near Fort Snelling for 10 hours. A 51-year-old teacher patrolling t…

If all those things happened in Spain where I live, I'm 99% we'd have actual riots on the streets, together with a lot of other unpleasant-but-needed civilian action, until things got better, like we've done in the past (sometimes maybe went slightly overboard with it, but better than nothing). Why are Americans so passive? You're literally transitioning into straight up authoritarianism, yet where are the riots? How…

Americans aren't passive. 40% of the people are openly fascist and support this.

Just look at this site as a sample set.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#487

Post by _bohm » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

alpine_accentor wrote: post #458

andrewvc wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe at what point someone would “have blood on their hands” in your view? The problem in my mind is that these systems are exclusively in service of dishonesty. ICE is clearly being used to further political ends. If it were actually trying to stem immigration it wouldn’t concentrate its officers in a state with one of the lowest rates of illegal immigrants. Are you saying you agree with that cause or th…

It makes perfect sense to concentrate law enforcement in a state that is in defiance. Even if the absolute numbers are low, the state cannot back down from enforcing the law because some people are resisting. Otherwise you invite anyone to disregard any law they don’t like. The state won’t allow this and the only way to overcome this is either to change the law or toss out the government, and only one options is real…

I think most people involved in protests would not characterize the thing they are resisting as merely "law enforcement". What they are experiencing is an occupation by a politically weaponized paramilitary organization which is going door-to-door in their neighborhoods wearing masks, wielding ARs, yelling at people and brutalizing them. How do you think you would react if this was taking place in your community?

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#488

Post by afavour » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #465

embedding-shape wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all those things happened in Spain where I live, I'm 99% we'd have actual riots on the streets, together with a lot of other unpleasant-but-needed civilian action, until things got better, like we've done in the past (sometimes maybe went slightly overboard with it, but better than nothing). Why are Americans so passive? You're literally transitioning into straight up authoritarianism, yet where are the riots? How…

I think it's something different than "Americans are passive" - rather, many of them/us perceive the context of what you're seeing very differently. I can share some of this perspective though I don't insist it's the only way to feel. 1. Americans on the ground are clearly feeling the effects of illegal immigration. As an example: a an African American janitor in our kids' school voted republican in 2024 for the firs…

I don’t think data supports this. Polling has shown a lot of people who voted Republican in 2024 (Latinos especially) have snapped back again already, at least partially because of what ICE is doing.

ICE are terrorizing a city and its residents no matter what their immigration status is. Even someone who strongly wishes to curb illegal immigration should have a problem with that.

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#489

Post by embedding-shape » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

alex43578 wrote: post #455

embedding-shape wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because I have a kid to take care of. A job I need to keep, and a way of life I'd like to maintain. Exactly, so why not go out on the streets and actually defend those things then? Currently your (presumed) inaction will cause those to be harmed, you're not "saving those" by saying and doing nothing, you're effectively giving them away if you don't actively protect them.

[flagged]

> Are any of those things threatened and need defending?

If you don't think authoritarianism or fascism actually has a way of harming those things, then no, I guess not.

I think for most people who had to learn about these things in school growing up, for like 7 years or something, together with grandparents who experienced these things for themselves, it's pretty clear what's happening, but without actually having that perspective, I could understand it feels like "What is everyone so upset about? Doesn't seem so bad".

Re: The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis

#490

Post by basket_horse » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

foobiekr wrote: post #484

basket_horse wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but in that case your rage should be directed at ICE / the federal government. Not a third party software vendor.

Palantir does a ton of customization and consulting for specific use cases. This isn't like Microsoft Excel being used to track uranium enrichment in Iran, it is a direct, explicit part of their business. Even if you do nothing else of impact in your life, you can stop defending the bad guys.

So because they show people how to use their software they’re evil?