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

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

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

551–560 of 756 posts

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

#551

Post by applfanboysbgon »

anon84873628 wrote: post #501
zasz wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a few smart people in national security, but they're getting fired. The Navy Secretary was just forced out. There's nothing that can help when the problem is upper management.

But FYI, Phelan was just a private equity guy installed by Trump. The reason he was fired is because he wasn't building the "Trump class" battleships Trump wanted. Which were supposed to have WW1 era appearance because Trump is an "aesthetics guy" and doesn't like the look of modern stealth ships. I kid you not.

> Which were supposed to have WW1 era appearance because Trump is an "aesthetics guy" and doesn't like the look of modern stealth ships.

Wait, that's actually based as fuck. The 20th-century battleships were the pinnacle of human architecture, let him have this one.

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

#552

Post by skissane »

eudamoniac wrote: post #538
next_xibalba wrote: post #506

Mandatory public service is fascism? Deporting illegal immigrants is fascism? There are ~68 countries with mandatory military service in the world [1]. To say nothing of countries with some other form of mandatory public service. How many of them are fascist? The U.S., with the backing of widespread public support, passed bipartisan immigration enforcement laws in 1996 with an aim of rapid and mass deportation of ill…

I agree; I don't see how anyone can read that manifesto as plainly fascistic. I am guessing most people didn't read it. I'm also guessing of those who did, they interpret every point as a dog whistle with secret double meaning, as they would with absolutely anything written by their "enemies".

The term “fascist” has been watered down to the point it doesn’t really mean anything the way many people use it now

I think the real standard for “fascist” has to be - how similar is what someone is doing to what Mussolini did? If there’s a genuine similarity there, the term “fascist” may be appropriate; otherwise, it isn’t

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

#553

Post by leodler »

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.

I just want to chime in and say it's a rather nice to see an earnest and pleasant response like this.

To your first point about the small animals in the fields that are harmed by agriculture, I think that's worth having concern about overall, certainly. But many of the animals that people currently consume are fed large quantities of crops that incur that same cost. The average beef cattle is eating such things for 18 months prior to being slaughtered, breeding sows do the same for 3-5 years, and their offspring 5-6 months on average.

If there are advances in things like cultured meat that can be produced in a sort of industrial setting at a competitive price it might be possible to drastically limit both the conscious and inadvertent harm to animals.

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

#554

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

tapland wrote: post #358
ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yea, I don't see any evidence that either the democratic party or democratic voters support the war on iran, secretly or not sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

No-one supports the war now. But Palestine just had to go? It can't be about _war_ or loss of life, and the people caring can get f-ed we don't need your votes. But sure one side is extremely against anything like this but unfortunately only get to demonstrate it when in opposition and unable to do anything.

Would you mind rephrasing this post? It's not clear what you're saying in any of it.

Maybe if you tried writing genuinely without sarcasm (I think there is sarcasm there, hard to tell), it would be more comprehensible?

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

#555

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

ericmay wrote: post #430
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A king or queen needs no such justification Sure they do! Take the king that the US's predecessor governments rebelled against, King George III. He was very much bound to the dictates of Parliament. From his Wikipedia article: > Meanwhile, George had become exasperated at Grenville's attempts to reduce the King's prerogatives, and tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade William Pitt the Elder to accept the office of pri…

Donald Trump is also bound by the dictates of Congress and the courts. If that’s your criteria as to who is “acting like a king” and your reference is yet another king who is constrained by the Congress and Courts, I’m not really sure what point your trying to make here. He isn’t a king nor does he act like one in the office of the President precisely because he is following the law (generally speaking, I don’t think…

> Your argument just makes “king” George out to be constrained in the way a president is.

Your placing of King in quotes is bizarre. Like, you see a resemblance between the current president and an actual king, and your takeaway is to try to retcon history and claim the king was not a king?

Your argument that someone can't act like a king unless they're breaking laws is a bad argument (and ignores the fact that this one is doing both). Don't let your reality tv fool you.

If that's your criteria as to who is "not acting like a king", I’m not really sure what point you're trying to make here.

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

#556

Post by cindyllm »

Gigachad wrote: post #534
bastawhiz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are U.S. defense contractors at an U.S. defense company. We should stop using the word "defense". They're war contractors at a war company. The Department of Defense is the Department of War. They changed the name and then immediately started taking military action against other countries. We're in a war in Iran for reasons that nobody can quite articulate, but it certainly has nothing to do with "defending" t…

The reason is fairly clear. The king has dementia and has lost the plot. And so far no one has been able to declare him unfit.

[dead]

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

#557

Post by Detrytus »

tdb7893 wrote: post #101
Ritewut wrote: post #69

Everyone in this industry should be required to read Careless People by Sara Wynn-Williams about her tenure at Facebook. Not because the book is about how evil Meta/Facebook is as a company but because you get to see the lengths people go to mentally convince themselves they are the good guy. Repeatedly in the book she tries to assure herself she's making the world better and that there's actually an ethical, positiv…

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…

I grew up watching my grandmother butchering a chicken for a Sunday dinner. Or my uncle butchering and skinning the calf. Knowing how the sausage is made does nothing for me.

I can understand someone being vegan because they believe eating plants is healthier. I can understand being vegan because you don’t like the taste of meat. But bringing any moral/religious reasons for it always seemed silly to me. There’s nothing more natural than one animal eating another. Humans evolved from mostly vegetarian monkeys to predators

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

#558

Post by tapland »

lovich wrote: post #460
tapland wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No-one supports the war now. But Palestine just had to go? It can't be about _war_ or loss of life, and the people caring can get f-ed we don't need your votes. But sure one side is extremely against anything like this but unfortunately only get to demonstrate it when in opposition and unable to do anything.

Right, so your argument is that democrats are performative which is just as bad as the republicans actively starting wars? Is there a more steelmanned version of this that I can ignore once you start making more false equivalencies in its defense?

The difference might be there in regards to Iran, with it's global market impact. But it's not there in regards to human life or suffering. That was made _very_ clear during the electoral campaign. But now it's _very different_ because it's "them" doing it and we can say we were always against this.

We have to say "us good, them bad" because we're voting the same way next time, and we're not planning to vote for something bad, right?

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

#559

Post by tapland »

Ritewut wrote: post #428
tapland wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but tons of things are awful. For me I couldn't keep doing things I knew caused immense suffering in other beings, be it humans or animals. (Sourcing things from ethical whatever and reducing consumption in general the last two decades, I'm sad my iPhone 6 isn't supported for banking so have to go android 10 etc). Vegetarian options got cheap, and I still eat locally produced eggs and some milk products. But lik…

Few people can afford to give a shit. Most people are getting the cheapest meat and dairy they can get from Walmart.

Blessing/curse that meat is so expensive in Scandinavia that good vegan options actually became competitive. I know meat is dirt cheap in the US =/

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

#560

Post by sharts »

tdb7893 wrote: post #101
Ritewut wrote: post #69

Everyone in this industry should be required to read Careless People by Sara Wynn-Williams about her tenure at Facebook. Not because the book is about how evil Meta/Facebook is as a company but because you get to see the lengths people go to mentally convince themselves they are the good guy. Repeatedly in the book she tries to assure herself she's making the world better and that there's actually an ethical, positiv…

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…

Where did you go after tech?
Post reply on HN