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Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

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Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#291

Post by wmorgan »

rayiner wrote: post #237
wmorgan wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This so-called traditional definition returns too many false negatives. It would exclude, for example, the inflammatory newspapers of the Jim Crow era. Americans learned with tragic regularity in the Post-Reconstruction era why spreading racial rumors is so reckless. It doesn’t matter to the moral calculus that the rumors were "truthy." The norm against expressing racial prejudice predates the most recent party reali…

We live in 2025, not 1875. The sentiments we’re talking about aren’t rooted in “racial prejudice” constructed to maintain a slave society. They’re rooted in the same reaction that folks would have if tens of thousands of desperately poor Appalachians were resettled in a small town in Vermont or Massachusetts. It’s not antipathy over in immutable characteristics, but actual differences in the aggregate behavior of lar…

This analysis would seem to exonerate even Pat Buchanan, who by the 1990s had learned to couch all his rhetoric in terms of culture rather than race.

> I think God made all people good. But if we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them in Virginia, which group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?

Nevertheless, his comments drew contemporary accusations of racism. So how modern are we talking about? This was well-trod discourse in 1992.

Buchanan and Vance had every possible culture to draw from to make their points, but they reached for Zulus and Haitians, two nations of Black people whose most famous historical event is a somewhat-successful war against White people. It strains credulity that this messaging is not fine-tuned to the electorate.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#292

Post by lolive »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #290
belter wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> be aware that none of those tools require coding knowledge, nor any DB administration, nor scalability consideration. These are slogans with marketing grade truth, not engineering truth. The moment you leave the happy path wizards you run straight into Python, SQL, JVM knobs, and cluster limits. The visual Pipeline Builder drops you into a Code node the second you need anything beyond basic joins/filters. Here is a…

Yeah as a general rule, when something requires "no coding" I question if they're too zoomed-in. In reality, you can just hire a programmer instead of a box-clicker. ...Except in this case, there might be a lot of value in letting James Bond or Boris Badenov whip up a quick spy pipeline without putting up a job ad for a Python coder.

Once you have used a visual block-based version of PySpark, going back to regular Python code will really look like going back to prehistory.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#293

Post by sofixa »

rayiner wrote: post #268
sofixa wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Culture is a real thing that exists, and it’s okay to prefer your own! Yes, it is. There is quite the leap from "preferring your own" to lying about a specific group are doing something morally objectionable, in order to reinforce your campaign's anti-immigration messaging, though. And yes, it is racist to lie about a group of people you don't like to make them sound worse so that other people don't like them too.…

> Targeting a specific group of people's immutable characteristics to slander them to paint them negatively fits your "original" definition of racism Nobody targeted anyone’s immutable characteristics. If you object to 10,000 Appalachians being resettled in your New England town, that’s not “racism.” It’s an objection based on not wanting them to do to your town what they did to their hometowns in Appalachia. It’s ab…

> But Bangladesh isn’t the way it is because of Bangladeshis, and it’s “racist” to suggest that importing 50,000 Bangladeshis to an enclave in the US would recreate dynamics that prevail in Dhaka

And that's fine to say. However, it isn't acceptable to invent a story that these Bangladeshis are eating pets with the goal to get everyone else to hate them though, especially when the place in question actually majority likes them, and was even asking for extra resources to help them.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#294

Post by FireBeyond »

rayiner wrote: post #180
guelo wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that these institutions were permanently controlled by Democrats the lies is what got us here

Not only is it true, it's not even debatable. 84% of federal employee campaign contributions went to Kamala Harris: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2024/11/federal-employees-... . If you exclude DOD, it's like 90%. In State and Commerce, it was like 95%. To put that into context, replacing the federal workforce with random voters from AOC's district in New York City would double the percentage of Republicans! ( htt…

So what?

Really? Wow. It does not matter one iota who employees vote for. That is a dark and ugly slope. Maybe we should extend such dystopian views to the periphery, too, such as lobbyists.

It is not a surprise to anyone that people who see themselves as Republican, "the party for smaller government" are less likely to work for said government.

But the insult (and I am not even a public servant) that because people are democrats, they are somehow beholden to that over doing their job professionally, is a strong one. You've basically accused them of having a loyalty to party over their jobs.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#295

Post by bigyabai »

rayiner wrote: post #227
rayiner wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They didn't ask you to define racism They raised the definition of racism by preemptively asserted that articles leveling “legitimate” accusations of racism wouldn’t count. For example, here’s an article trying to tie Trump’s growing support among minorities to “multiracial whiteness” and minorities “embrac[ing] white power movements.” From where I’m standing that sure seems like calling minority supporters of Trum…

Forgot link https://www.npr.org/2021/01/24/960060957/understanding-multi...

[flagged]

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#296

Post by ilikehurdles »

estearum wrote: post #270
inemesitaffia wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44786967 I actually went to listen to it too. I've seen this nonsense before from journalists

My claim: "he believes Greta Thunberg is very possibly the actual antichrist" Thiel's words: > Thiel: ... The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop. You talk about existential risk nonstop, and this is what you need to regulate.... > in the 17th century, I can imagine a Dr. Strangelove, Edward Teller-type person taking over the world. > In our world, it’s far more likely to…

He’s talking about

> downstream effects of climate regulating agreements/regimes on global productivity and individual liberty

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#297

Post by estearum »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #296
estearum wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My claim: "he believes Greta Thunberg is very possibly the actual antichrist" Thiel's words: > Thiel: ... The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop. You talk about existential risk nonstop, and this is what you need to regulate.... > in the 17th century, I can imagine a Dr. Strangelove, Edward Teller-type person taking over the world. > In our world, it’s far more likely to…

He’s talking about > downstream effects of climate regulating agreements/regimes on global productivity and individual liberty

He's talking about the Antichrist dude... he's a devout Christian... they believe in things like the Antichrist.

People really do be bending over backwards not to hear the words spoken to them if they seem too wacky to be palatable. Dark secret though: billions of people believe truly wacky shit. Some of those people are unbelievably wealthy.

Anyone can go read the transcript. It's quite clear he's saying he believes Greta might very well be the Antichrist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/peter-thiel-antic...

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#298

Post by rayiner »

bigyabai wrote: post #295
rayiner wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgot link https://www.npr.org/2021/01/24/960060957/understanding-multi...

[flagged]

January 6 involved a multiracial band of wackjobs storming the capitol for reasons that had nothing to do with race or racism. Framing J6 as involving “multiracial white supremacy” is a great example of how NPR tries to make everything about white people being racist.

In this case, NPR’s ideological blinders caused them to miss the real story. Racism in the country is decreasing, leading to less racial polarization in politics. Trump gained minority vote share in each election, culminating with winning a record number of minorities in 2024 for a republican in the modern era. The GOP is becoming an increasingly multiracial coalition united by distrust of institutions and experts, conspiracy theories, and memes.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#299

Post by palmfacehn »

upboundspiral wrote: post #287
palmfacehn wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Roosevelt himself called Mussolini “admirable” and professed that he was “deeply impressed by what he has accomplished.” The admiration was mutual. In a laudatory review of Roosevelt’s 1933 book Looking Forward, Mussolini wrote, “Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices.… Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism.”…

Now I haven't read the book "Looking Forward." If I can get my hands on a copy it promises to be an interesting read. But I would like to follow up on the other ideas presented. ‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those othe…

You make a good and necessary point:

>...to disregard the extreme differences between the social contract in a democratic state and an authoritarian one is insane...

> I don't care if a crazy person was supposedly "impressed" at what Roosevelt was doing, because they were attempting to reframe it in terms of their propaganda

Praise is often used in a diplomatic context as well. Just because bad actors praised FDR, it doesn't necessarily follow that FDR is equally odious.

That said, at the time the US had shifted from the high growth, individualistic era of the Gilded Age, into the collectivism of the Progressive Era. When people talk about fascism here it is often in the accusatory, partisan context.

If you examine collectivist projects, you will find that they almost always require an authoritarian backstop to enforce the agenda. There are direct parallels between the Corporatist economic model and many of the progressive era reforms. Instead of using the word 'Fascism' as a partisan cudgel, it may be more informative to examine the parallels. Specifically here in economic doctrine.

>Is it so bad for the government to lay the foundations for the economic security of its people? Or at least attempt to?

In my view, yes absolutely. While it maybe fair to presume good intent, we could also judge the programs on their outcomes. Cynics typically look towards the special interests which benefit from the state's largess and dismiss the good intentions as a mere marketing ploy. Is self-professed altruism enough?

Federal Reserve (a public private partnership, see Corporatism) Chairman Ben Bernanke famously observed, "You're right, we caused the Great Depression. We're sorry. But thanks to you we'll never do it again." The comment was directed towards Milton Freedman, at his 90th birthday party. This was before Helicopter Ben presided over the 2008 financial crisis.

As for FDR, his new deal programs are widely regarded as deepening and prolonging the Great Depression.

So from an empirical perspective, yes these were specifically bad attempts.

However, I'm going a bit long here, and the main topic of the discussion is Democracy. Aside from empirical evaluations we can also reason about the premises of the democratic process in relation to FDR's programs. One of the key objections to Democracy as an ultimate good, is that the sum of the democratic process, Democracy the ideal, becomes greater than the whole of the participants. Axiomatically, if no single individual has the power to coerce another into an internment camp or force him to sell his labor at a fixed rate; Then by what magical incantation, did the votes of these individuals empower FDR to intern Japanese Americans or enact price controls?

I agree that there is an order of magnitude of difference between history's worst and FDR. However, many of the rationales and some of the methods are similar. If we are truly opposed to those outcomes or ideals, then we should call out the similarities.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#300

Post by strogonoff »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #289
strogonoff wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ontologies, semantic relationships, data pipelines, data provenance (I suppose a.k.a. lineage), etc. are all things that quickly become familiar to anyone working on knowledge management. All of these things are pretty fascinating, as they concern the meta of the meta; the nature of knowledge itself; how to slice the ineffable reality into parts and how to communicate complex things to people. Many software engineers…

> how to slice the ineffable reality into parts and how to communicate complex things to people So, lots and lots of pie charts?

Slicing reality doesn’t make it into a pie!
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