Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

thenational.scot

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 87 posts

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#41

Post by AndrewKemendo »

nxobject wrote: post #4

I really do love the American "but the veterans!" script, despite only them being a minority of the people involved: > Of [the 32], 14 no longer work for, or with, us, some of whom stopped as long as five years ago. Six are ex-armed forces veterans whose public sector experience involved serving and protecting their country. > Not only do we entirely reject claims of an alleged ‘revolving door’ strategy, but we also…

Hi Iraq war veteran and former 17 year US civil servant here…

No.

Being a veteran at this point shouldn’t shield you from criticism from being part of the MIC/Revolving door

The owners are doing their absolute best to make military members become hardcore MIC capitalists to give companies trying to get into defense, credibility like a token.

The whole thing is fucking gross and there’s a whole miltary to corporate leadership pipeline.

Everyone should read war is a racket: https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#42

Post by Erem »

camhart wrote: post #34
karim79 wrote: post #9

A friend of mine recently got headhunted by a "defense" company called, and I won't even post the link, it's a website which sounds a bit like Van Helsing with some AI thrown in as a twist. He got an offer of 50k EUR more than his current already ridiculous salary. I had to say that it's up to you, but don't expect me to still be your friend and still talk to you if you go for that. "defense"

Shows the value of your friendship.

Why do people in this thread detest that a pacifist with conviction exists? I’m not like them, and nobody is telling you to be like them. But having people like that in a population is important lest we become drunk on our ability to destroy our enemies.

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#43

Post by karim79 »

camhart wrote: post #35
karim79 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working on "killy" stuff is bad. That's my whole point. I is l stupid and counterproductive to what we as humanity are supposed to be doing.

You realize what happens if we dont have killy stuff right? We get killed.

Who is "we"? Who is the boogyman and who are the potential victims?

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#44

Post by tamimio »

csallen wrote: post #17
karim79 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I would and without question. If by "do" you mean remove myself from the absolute evil that these establishments are, and shame them for it then yes. I can approve of just about any job unless it's about murdering people because some politician(s) want it.

How many steps removed do you draw the line? Obviously, it's one thing to be a commander ordering an attack, vs a soldier firing the weapon, vs starting the company to make the weapon, vs being a supplier to the weapons company, vs being an employee at the manufacturer, etc. What about working for a president who is going to inevitably order hundreds if not thousands murdered? Or voting for said president? What about…

The line is simple, do you have the choice (personally or influentially) to avoid that? If yes, you draw the line. Can you avoid paying taxes? No, can you influence not to be used as you mentioned? You try. Can you avoid a job that obviously will use your expertise in questionable ways? Yes. The right and wrong is clear, people who try to muddy it they just seek justification.

I personally turned down multiple offers/work when it comes to drones for example, I designed stuff back in 2020 that some companies now just knew about it and its potentials, but when you meet with them and discuss what they are trying to build, you know that whatever they are after can be used in bad faith if the company decided to do so, do you sell your soul for the cash or do you prefer to sleep well at night?

The only exception is whatever you built has no direct or obvious bad faith, you build a library, a gstreamer addon, etc., that can get a pass.

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#45

Post by basket_horse »

cryo32 wrote: post #16

The "revolving door" spoken of here isn't quite as simple as it looks. Granted there are problems at "senior government level" but that is rare . I worked for UK government for a few years. Then I went to the private sector. This happens a lot. Most of people who do, me included, it's because the public sector is so deep in incompetence and stupid politics that it is soul-crushing. Also to get anywhere you tend to ha…

The boring reality doesn’t get as many clicks

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#46

Post by tamimio »

bpodgursky wrote: post #12

This is outrageous. We need to hold the line — nobody who has held a job with the UK Government ever deserves to be employed by the private sector. Once you're in the government, you've made your choice, you live or die in the public sector. No more begging the private sector for mercy later.

Well in Canada it’s the opposite, people work in gov to build connections, then they go and start a business, use these connections to get contracts, all while hiring people that these connections know/relate to, to secure such contracts.

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#47

Post by skippyboxedhero »

bpodgursky wrote: post #12

This is outrageous. We need to hold the line — nobody who has held a job with the UK Government ever deserves to be employed by the private sector. Once you're in the government, you've made your choice, you live or die in the public sector. No more begging the private sector for mercy later.

Bear in mind, there is far far worse corruption in Scotland (hub and spoke contracting for one, this system has private sector contractors advising the Scottish government on whether to accept their own bids). There is a reason why this specific paper is reporting on this specific corruption in the UK government (and never reports about corruption in Scotland).

It is everywhere, it is endemic, and part of the game is people who are involved briefing the media against other people who are involved in corruption. Almost all the people involved with this campaign that I could find are people on the UK's left-wing grift circuit (in short, you setup an "independent" company/think tank claiming that you are the only source free of big tech...and you are funded by an array of quasi-state bodies and coincidentally end up pumping out continuous pro-regime, anti-change agitprop...it is just layers and layers of corruption).

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#48

Post by tempaccount5050 »

halestock wrote: post #31
tempaccount5050 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worrying about what other people think is the biggest waste of energy. I'm glad a lot of people wouldn't be friends with me because of some of my ideals. I don't want to be liked by everyone. Why would you?

Because society functions a lot better when it has people in it who like each other.

Homogeny is not good for society.

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#49

Post by tempaccount5050 »

teachrdan wrote: post #39
tempaccount5050 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worrying about what other people think is the biggest waste of energy. I'm glad a lot of people wouldn't be friends with me because of some of my ideals. I don't want to be liked by everyone. Why would you?

> I don't want to be liked by everyone. Why would you? Eh, this is a bit of a straw man, no? It's one thing to be liked by everyone. It's another for a (presumably) long time, close friend to say they can no longer respect you due to your decisions. In this case, it's someone who is already making a lot of money, who could make even more by working for a company that builds AI killing machines. Telling that person th…

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. "Liking" or blindly accepting everyone regardless of what believe or do just because you have known them for some period of time is silly.

Re: Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

#50

Post by skippyboxedhero »

nayroclade wrote: post #7

Lol, this is SOP for the British state. There has been a revolving door between the civil service and the private sector for decades. You cannot conceive of how many billions have been wasted on "consultancy" contracts with the big four, IT projects that lasted for years and delivered nothing, etc.

It is far bigger than this. I would look more closely into who is behind the article and who has been quoted for comment here/why. And you think it is just some expensive IT projects...UK media has been bought and sold, just not by who you think.
Post reply on HN