Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys • Hacker News Board

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#331

Post by dfxm12 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

Ritewut wrote: post #110

tdb7893 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that people will be able to justify anything that is "normal". I went vegan after learning too much of how the literal sausage is made and the amount of people who have unprompted (people are weird about it so I try to avoid talking about being vegan except for mentioning it quickly while declining food) said something along the lines of "factory farming is awful but I just love bacon" and laugh is l…

They are letting perfect be the enemy of good. If they respond with "I love bacon" then tell them to eat plant-based + bacon. It's still a vast improvement environmentally than what they were doing previously.

To add a data point, I've reduced my meat consumption from "whenever I can" to "once a day" to "normally once a day, but some days none at all". It's really not that big a deal. I have no idea what this is doing to the environment, but I can confirm that I'm saving some scratch (bacon is expensive!), my hunger and tastebuds are just as sated, and my routine bloodwork has improved somewhat.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#332

Post by reactordev » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

spwa4 wrote: post #301

reactordev wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the administration’s love of Axis of Allies, or is it allies of axis? They don’t know, they got distracted by the mustaches and the desire to conquer the world.

You do realize that the Axis (Nazi Germany, Japan) were attacking everyone with the explicitly stated goal of conquering the world (and subjecting it to the holocaust, we might add), and US stopped them, conquered Europe, North Africa, half the Pacific, and nothing has been able to stop the US military since. And the US ... retreated. We might add, the Soviets, the other axis, did not retreat. China did not retreat.…

My point was that this administration seems to like the axis plan more than the original US/Allied plan. I'm fully aware of which side was which. Tell that to Hegseth and Miller.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#333

Post by nemomarx » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

lateforwork wrote: post #319

louiereederson wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they war or defense products when they are used against your own citizens?

Neither... it is illegal when used against citizens

What law are you thinking of? Some tools used in riot enforcements would be illegal to use in wars, so it actually seems to be the other way around to me.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#334

Post by turtlesdown11 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #217

malfist wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like it's mandatory to kill sentient life to feed people. It isn't.

I always wonder what vegans think is going to happen to all the pigs, cows, and chickens if people stop eating meat?

> I always wonder what vegans think is going to happen to all the pigs, cows, and chickens if people stop eating meat?

factory farms would stop breeding animals to kill them? Did you think you had an argument here?

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#335

Post by tapland » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

solid_fuel wrote: post #314

tapland wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might want to go back and check on the Dems. It bad > it's the ones I don't vote for is easy to say.

Senate Democrats have made at least 5 attempts to stop this. Every Democrat voted in favor except Fetterman. Every republican opposed the attempt except Ron Paul. The Republicans are entirely responsible for the war in Iran - they started it and have opposed every attempt to reign the administration in. Don't play this "both sides" game when one side is clearly causing the issue here. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/p…

I mean. The side voting while knowing they can't stop it that way, the definition of optics, thought this was worth it to not cater to their anti-war voters, no?

Both side bad yeah, you seem to think the solution is still to cling to the lesser of two evils. Hell, dem presidential candidates were praising Trumps Iran policy up until the bombs started falling. There is no evidence they _actually_ care about a war with Iran outside of, just as you do, saying OH this is THEIR doing.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#336

Post by theturret » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #303

theturret wrote: post #283

As I said in another comment, I think it’s important to debate what these companies are doing, how they’re doing it, and whether the United States’ actions are morally and legally justified. But I also think we need to get more smart people interested and working in national security. That’s the way you get the best balance between effective security and the minimum negative side effects to civil liberties or collate…

> by having the smartest people inside these companies coming up with the best tech while also shaping the conversation from the inside. The smartest people don't get that choice. Oppenheimer, Teller and Ulam were all ignored in matters of policy, the Manhattan Project was not designed to integrate their political feedback. Conversely, the scientists at Peenemünde never got to question the effectiveness of V-1 bombs…

Fair point. I don’t think that simply working at a defense-tech would or should give someone sway over political decisions.

Which might be also good: von Neumann advocated for a U.S. nuclear first strike on the Soviet Union.

In the context of this thread my claim is simply that smarter people will yield smarter solutions that balance the tradeoffs mentioned earlier. The choice to use those weapons still lies with our elected leaders.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#337

Post by 8note » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

sfink wrote: post #39

palmotea wrote: post #24

> ...about working for a company named after J. R. R. Tolkien’s corrupting all-seeing orb. Wasn't the the problem that Sauron had one so he could corrupt the other users through the orb, but the orb itself was not corrupting?

It was, which is why it makes such a perfect analogy. Surveillance has lots of good and bad uses, and is morally neutral itself. Powerful but neutral. The problem comes when the users use it for bad purposes, and in fact it is so tempting that they can't help using it for more and more bad purposes. If every palantir (either one) user was a "good guy" who refused to use it for bad purposes, it would be a potent force…

surveillance creates leverage over people. its not neutral if it creates a power imbalance, especially since its used by the wealthy on the poor.

you can't do surveillance and not learn the bad knowledge, and once youve created the bad knowledge its just a matter of time before it gets into nefarious hands.

a "bad guy" could still hack the "good guys" or palantir itself, and get access to all the bad data the "good guys" have created.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#338

Post by padjo » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

QuercusMax wrote: post #6

For a company supposedly full of smart people they sure do work hard to turn their brains off

Smart people are very prone to using their intellectual abilities for self deception and rationalisation.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#339

Post by turtlesdown11 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

adammarples wrote: post #305

notlenin wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, you can get "good" meat - factory farming is awful, but not all meat is factory farmed. You can eat happy animals, for example pigs that spent their lives outside being pigs, hanging out with their pig friends, and near the end of their pig lives had to go be eaten. If you believe plants are conscious too, that's probably more ethical than eating Nutella made with palm oil from forests that were completel…

Palm oil comes from palm fruit, by the way, not from "massacaring" the trees. Fruits are, from an evolutionary perspective, meant to be eaten, it is their purpose. If plants are conscious of fruit being harvested at all it probably feels good.

I think you're not reading the comment accurately, they're referring to the environmental harms of palm oil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_and_environmental_impac...

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#340

Post by collingreen » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

Planktonne wrote: post #182

thewebguyd wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we adopt their language because things are already bad we are saying that their power is now the only reality that matters, we are giving up any form of resistance. We killed people under the name of Department of Defense too. Giving them the name is giving them the legitimacy to continue to justify the violence, and signals to the rest of the population that no one is coming to help and the new order is absolute.…

As a non-American, I think that Americans treating concrete problems as less important than linguistic games does an awful lot more to legitimise the violence.

I don't think parent claimed that simply using certain words is more important than dealing with the real problems.

You sound frustrated with the American situation. I am too but that doesn't mean someone saying "resist" is somehow condoning or ignoring the important issues.

I think the message of "don't submit in advance" is a great one and it actually makes sense to me to include that ethos in all things, including your speech. I think we all agree that speech alone is not enough.