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Palantir has hired more than 30 senior UK Government officials

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

#71

Post by LtWorf »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #41
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 le…

Unfortunately companies only want somewhat high ranking veterans, not your regular GI.

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

#72

Post by LtWorf »

bulbar wrote: post #62
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"

Living in Europe I have a different perspective on defense. Without it, we would already be living in Russian labor camps. You can't just stop funding military and your military industry and expect other actors to just play along and be friendly from now on then.

How many times have germany, sweden, italy invaded russia in history and how many times has russia done the opposite?

Either you're going to be surprised or you're just in bad faith.

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

#73

Post by LtWorf »

camhart wrote: post #60
Erem wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm fine with there being pacifist. What makes you think I'm opposed them? What this person is arguing is not for pacifism, its an argument that to be their friend you must agree with them on pacifism. I have my own thoughts and beliefs. My friends have theirs. They arent all the same. Thats how it should be, and thats healthy. Thats diversity. This "you're dead to me if you dont believe what I believe" culture is id…

Would you be friends with a serial killer?

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

#74

Post by tamimio »

bulbar wrote: post #63
tamimio wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Can you avoid paying taxes? No Of course you can. It's just inconvenient. You could leave the country, break the law or stop getting a taxable income. It's not that "playing along" isn't a choice. It's just an easy one. If the CEO of your company changes and turns out to do evil things with the company and the product of your work, would you switch the company? If the President of your country changes and turns out…

> You could leave the country

Not if you are a US citizen, you pay taxes even if you’re living abroad.

And yes I would switch companies, it’s exactly what I did before, and I will do it again. I can’t switch countries and I don’t think it’s effective like switching companies, but there are other means if your president or PM turned things evil, from pressuring your MP/senator to campaigning against to others. You never succumb to evil things no matter what.

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

#75

Post by karim79 »

fooker wrote: post #56
tmnvix wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. But I would tell anyone involved in a genocide to. In my opinion that now includes the US and UK. Others will have different opinions, obviously, but this is mine.

Great, that is not an uncommon stance. Respectable in my opinion. Now, cutting friends and family off over something this just means you do not want to tolerate people with differing views and opinions on this. It's more about the side you are on rather than some abstract moral argument against working for companies tangentially related to the defense sector.

"defense" sector. Listen to yourself.

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

#76

Post by fooker »

karim79 wrote: post #75
fooker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great, that is not an uncommon stance. Respectable in my opinion. Now, cutting friends and family off over something this just means you do not want to tolerate people with differing views and opinions on this. It's more about the side you are on rather than some abstract moral argument against working for companies tangentially related to the defense sector.

"defense" sector. Listen to yourself.

Yes, that’s how language works.

But feel free to petition literally all countries to remove words like defense or security from the names of their militaries.

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

#78

Post by nerdyadventurer »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #13

These people are like a plague. Is there nowhere one can escape them? Is everyone aware of all the unhinged beliefs their CEO and leadership has been spreading. never mind their actual practices. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/21/palantir-... I guess like Americans, Britons also have forgotten all of those who paid by their blood to keep destroy these sort of people. Just like Americans, a large numb…

He is a monster, supporting to bomb children.

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

#79

Post by bulbar »

tamimio wrote: post #74
bulbar wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you avoid paying taxes? No Of course you can. It's just inconvenient. You could leave the country, break the law or stop getting a taxable income. It's not that "playing along" isn't a choice. It's just an easy one. If the CEO of your company changes and turns out to do evil things with the company and the product of your work, would you switch the company? If the President of your country changes and turns out…

> You could leave the country Not if you are a US citizen, you pay taxes even if you’re living abroad. And yes I would switch companies, it’s exactly what I did before, and I will do it again. I can’t switch countries and I don’t think it’s effective like switching companies, but there are other means if your president or PM turned things evil, from pressuring your MP/senator to campaigning against to others. You nev…

> Not if you are a US citizen, you pay taxes even if you’re living abroad.

Afair: Only if you pay less taxes where you live, which won't apply if you move to any European country.

> but there are other means if your president or PM turned things evil

I think that's correct, as long as we are thinking about a functional Democratic country. In an autocratic country this doesn't hold anymore.

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

#80

Post by bulbar »

LtWorf wrote: post #72
bulbar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in Europe I have a different perspective on defense. Without it, we would already be living in Russian labor camps. You can't just stop funding military and your military industry and expect other actors to just play along and be friendly from now on then.

How many times have germany, sweden, italy invaded russia in history and how many times has russia done the opposite? Either you're going to be surprised or you're just in bad faith.

When the Nazis attacked, it was important for the Soviets and the world that the Soviets had a huge army. So yeah that kind of supports my argument.

Doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Putin transformed the young post cold war democracy of Russia right back into a dictatorship and is now in a full scale war with another country and would have already invaded everything he thinks should be part of 'great Russia'.

A country needs an army because at any time there are just too many aggressors out there. Who that is exactly might change over time, right now Russia clearly is one of them. As the US threatened Greenland and it's raging war against Iran (which course itself is an aggressive dictatorship), it's also a current aggressor against which European countries need an army.

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