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

#481

Post by Terr_ » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:43 PM UTC

therobots927 wrote: post #437

wormpilled wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't really matter if you talk shit online, it's just passive aggressive pressure relief. What matters is you not being able to effectively protest or do anything about it.

Well actually it does make a difference. Precrime only works if they can separate signal from noise. Much like how the more users there are on the Tor network, the easier it is to blend in, overriding the system with “threat signals” just adds noise to their predictive models. And in addition to that, talking shit online lets others know they’re not alone. It increases the odds of coordinated action. The best propaga…

> Precrime only works if they can separate signal from noise.

IMO a lot of these debates depend on implicit assumptions about the threat and how it operates. For example:

1. Lawful Evil: They care about good data and going after the "worst" offenders, even if I might disagree about what is "bad".

2. Lazy risk-averse evil: The data needs to give them something to justify the existence of the program, they'll go after whomever is convenient.

3. Cover-your-ass evil: The data archive exists to let them make a plausible case for someone they've already decided to persecute for other reasons.

4. Fraudulent evil: The data archive is just to make it easier to fabricate a fake reason to go after someone.

5. Blatant evil: The data doesn't matter because they can just do stuff to you by fiat.

Some of those groups would be hampered by noise, some would benefit from noise, and the last just won't care.

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

#482

Post by Planktonne » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:47 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #445

Planktonne wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>linguistic games it's far more than that. By giving into the television like hyper-reality they create you're giving up base reality. That power and legitimate institutions are derived from the people and due process. To surrender to the rhetoric is the entire point of the obscenities. War department, thugs with badges pretending to be police etc. The provocations are intentional and the offensiveness is the point,…

> To surrender to the rhetoric is the entire point of the obscenities.

No, this is what I am complaining about. The obscenities are the point, the rhetoric is cover. Ignoring the rhetoric does not stop the obscenities, and treating the problem as 'they are using the wrong name' rather than 'they are doing the wrong thing' dismisses the real harm being done.

If you claim to be the pope, rejecting your constructed reality is the way to help you out of your delusion. If you do so while leading a crusade to sack Jerusalem, it's not the priority.

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

#483

Post by edmundsauto » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:51 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #281

nkingsy wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The movie "vice" covers this nicely. The only thing stopping US presidents from acting like kings is precedent.

This is simply not true and it's disappointing fear-mongering from Vice (or anyone else who publishes this stuff). The reason you know it's true is because Trump doesn't care about precedent, yet in court case after court case that he or his administration lose they follow the law, even if it is imperfect or later attempted to be argued under a different standing. The same thing that is true for Donald Trump now was…

This is demonstrably false. In the case of removing migrants, the court ordered the practice halt and flights get turned around. The court also found evidence of contempt from the federal government due to noncompliance, although another appeals court stopped the contempt investigation.

In the Kiyemba decision, the court identified a pattern of 96 violations across 75 or so cases. Detainees were held despite release orders

In family separation cases, courts have required legal representation reinstated and the government refused to comply.

In the case of NY vs Trump, courts ordered funds to be unfrozen and the administration refused to comply.

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

#484

Post by tptacek » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:52 PM UTC

leonidasrup wrote: post #8

Palantir employees should understand that they are not regular employees at a regular company. They are U.S. defense contractors at an U.S. defense company. Also Palantir customers should understand that by buying Palantir services/products they are doing business with U.S. defense company. I don't say that this is positive or negative, it just clarifies the relationships and it should set the expectations.

They're defense contractors the same way IBM and Oracle are. Palantir has a huge USG business, but they're also widely used across the Fortune 500. From the coverage of Palantir online you'd think the company actually manufactured Palantirs, but they are in fact a database consultingware company; one person described them to me as "Oracle but with the benefit of the Web 2.0 technology stack".

People read things like this and a switch flips in their brain, that they're being told to be more charitable to Palantir, and that's not at all where I'm coming from. Rather: the attention paid to Palantir does a very effective job of running cover for Oracle, IBM, and Cisco.

Obviously, the ludicrous marketing/communications operation Palantir is running doesn't make any of this any simpler to reason about. Imagine getting a manifesto from AWS alongside your S3 bill urging you to reconsider Apostolic succession in the traditional Catholic church; that's the vibe they've managed to create.

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

#485

Post by stasomatic » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:54 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #371

stasomatic wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the recourse when they fall into a natural senile abyss like with the previous POTUS? Wait and see? I naively lived under an assumption there was a system of checks and balances that's not a coup d'état.

It's just up to those that we elected to make a decision or enact legislation. If they decide tat the president isn't senile enough, then that's just what they get to decide. Sometimes I think folks are expecting there to be an ever increasing system of accountability or authority to appeal to, but no it's just those people and they get to decide. If you don't like their decision, outside of the ballot box or whateve…

I'll bite. What's in it for them ("They are the authority")? Weathering the weather until the next election? I'm prone to assuming that people higher on the totem pole are smarter, more experienced, more nuanced, better educated, that's on me.

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

#486

Post by yowayb » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:56 PM UTC

There's never been a single day in history without war. Indeed, there's never been a moment in all of biological life without violent conflict.

In high school, I had a visitor from West Point. My dad (Killing Fields survivor) was so excited. I (16 year old boy who only knew video games, porn and comics) later threw an impressive tantrum that defeated my father.

I threw away a golden ticket to see the world for what it is (instead of from within my cocoon in the suburbs of Los Angeles) and become a man at a more appropriate age.

Instead, I became an overpaid Peter Pan in San Francisco.

Theres some effect, I can't remember the name, where experts in one field (engineering) think they understand other fields (war) because they're so smart at their own field. I think this very much applies here.

If you're at Palantir and think you're the bad guy, first make the honest effort to convince yourself otherwise.

Failing that, leave and make room for patriots.

I don't like hurting others, but you really need to understand there are others that absolutely want to hurt you for basically no reason, and that hurting them first is highly effective, and as both firepower and intelligence (Palantir) improve, it becomes less fatal (clear historical trend).

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

#487

Post by redwall_hp » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:58 PM UTC

stasomatic wrote: post #324

Ritewut wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is the answer to feed everyone during these budget constrained times? It can’t be tofu, can it? There are just too many of us. You are very wrong here by orders of magnitudes. The US produces about 5 billion bushes of soybeans. 1 bushel is around 60 lbs. Having made tofu myself, depending on the type of tofu you make 1 lb of dry soybeans is anywhere from 1.5 to 2 lbs of tofu(remember we are adding water to the…

Thanks for the math. Obviously not everyone will go for Soyfu, but I'll attempt to integrate it into my diet. I've had it, it's an acquired taste, but what isn't really. I remember hating black caviar growing up in Ua.

Tofu is amazing when it's used for things tofu is made for instead of as a sad meat substitute. Miso soup isn't miso soup without tofu, and mapo tofu is one of the most amazing flavors in existence. (It's sichuan, so it's not for people who can't tolerate flavor.)

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

#488

Post by rexpop » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 11:58 PM UTC

> I'm going to tell you about how I took a job building software to kill people. But don't get distracted by that; I didn't know at the time. — Caleb Hearth

1. https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBdBoWAtLNI

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

#489

Post by reactordev » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 12:05 AM UTC

oblio wrote: post #350

spwa4 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

I think OP is talking about the current administration.

No one reads anymore

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

#490

Post by adriand » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 12:05 AM UTC

tharkun__ wrote: post #464

adriand wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US did not retreat. We fought multiple wars to maintain our power and influence. We toppled multiple regimes to maintain puppet governments. Very much the same as the USSR and China have done. As much as I am critical of the US, until now the US did behave very differently from other superpowers. Consider the end of WWII. The US did not inflict reparations on the vanquished nations but rather, invested huge sum…

The US did not keep bases in all of West Germany though. There were different sectors. The US had essentially the South. There were also the British sector and French. The Soviets were the fourth sector but we all know how that one was quite different from the other three. While the French and British have mostly left, the US stayed. Though to be fair even the British still do have some bases it seems as NATO troups.…

> The US on the other hand is still there with much larger force.

To provide for European security! That’s the deal in terms of Europe and NATO and also specifically to handle Germany. The idea was that America would provide security to Europe including the nuclear umbrella, and one benefit - among many others - was that Germany would not need to have a powerful military.

Can you perhaps guess why people might be concerned about a heavily armed Germany in the postwar period? Those same concerns are bubbling up in European capitals right now, as Germany rearms due to the loss of the US as a reliable partner.