"the arm patch, disposal of and disdain for law, security and privacy, alignment with fascists...all of that seems pretty innocuous and normal but when we bored into FDAs data, wow, that really opened my eyes"
I still have only vague ideas what they even are and do and why they are special. Yeah, marketing, data brokering, spying, PR, social engineering, propaganda, but then how does that differ from Meta and Google.
The palantíri were created by elves and weren't inherently evil. It was only when Sauron captured them and exerted his will over them to make it difficult for anyone to use them without sending straight to him that they became evil.
This may an overly cynical take, though that seems hard to do these days, but I’ve always believed they are intentionally vague… even to their customers.
A few years ago, I had an acquaintance that was trying to join the CIA. She got several rounds into the interview process but ultimately took a job at Meta (who she was also interviewing with). She got fired in one of the later mass layoffs, but she chose to work there. She knew the kind of company they were and are, and she was like, "They gonna pay me lots of money? Then I'm in!" And look how that worked out.
There is no world in which these companies are doing anything good, and if you think they are, then you're the ignorant rube they want to help bring about technofascism, and they're fine tossing you into their grinder as meat as they please.
I was recently recruited by Meta, had a bad feeling, did some research, and sure enough, it was was a terrible place to work, by all accounts. I already had doubts about Meta and deleted my Facebook account over a decade ago. Needless to stay I withdrew my candicacy.
Like attracts like. I hope all these people selling their souls and their country out for money to companies like Meta and Palantir, who make money hand over first by actively making society less safe and free, get what's coming to them.
I would never work for Meta, TikTok, Palantir, etc no matter how much they paid me.
Why would you even name yourself after the Palantiri, they're literally tainted with bad omens.
They are implied to be made by Fëanor, who in rage perpetuated a mass-slaying of his kin because they refused to give him their boats, which he needed for his crazy revenge quest.
Some were then literally used by Sauron, who literally is the servant of basically Satan, to gain knowledge so he could conquer Middle-earth.
Like why would you think that'd be a good name for a company.
Probably because you have the hubris necessary to believe that if the One Ring were in your hands, you would be strong enough to wield it without becoming corrupted.
It's because they've read the books, know they're popular, want to be hip and interesting, and completely miss the morality of the books they think they love.
Look at Musk naming barges after space ships from a society where people can change gender practically at will, yet can't deal with the fact that his daughter is transgender.
Oh they realized. But it was their job. To question it might put them out of work. Can't take the risk. Can't do anything about it now - try to blame Theil or Trump - even though they are the ones that built it and looked the other way the entire time. It isn't descending into fascist. It was being built to enable and protect fascism when it came back out in the mainstream.
Palantir was founded—with initial venture capital investment from the CIA—at a moment of national consensus following the September 11, 2001, attacks, when many saw fighting terrorism abroad as the most critical mission facing the US.
You mean the backlash to our constant and brutal meddling with the will and sovereignty of the rest of the world, the pillaging and raping of both the earth and the humans who occupy it for our own monetary gain? Living like kings through acts of evil so we could parade around calling ourselves The Greatest Country, and even going so far as to hide the worst of the worst atrocities from our own citizens, and the things that couldn’t escape the historical record being swept away as “but we’re better now!” and pretending that just by “stopping” (which we almost never actually do, we just hide it better) that we’ve fixed the problems?
That terrorism?
I guess 30% of Americans really did know it, and they voted for the most American man they knew of. God this place sucks.
A decade ago a young an gifted software developer acquaintance of mine was going to work for Palantir and already back then I warned him of the kind of company he was joining.
After the Snowden Revelations it was already pretty obvious that Palantir specialized in data analytics of and overview interfaces for mass surveillance data - they made their money from helping authoritarian activities, including those in supposed Democracies.
It's pretty obvious that a company doing that is built on the principled of having no Ethics or Morals.
i first became aware of the company, when i was searching on lore about the lotr objects, what you know it led to a website owned by thiel, and then it became more apparent when helped sued gawker who was likely investigating thiel on his companies shady practices.
There are two surprising aspects of this to me. Firstly that the employees feel confident enough to express concern about Palantir's actions in official channels. I would have thought that the nature of their work was obvious enough that this would be a cultural taboo and therefore self-censored. I guess some of them have limits to suspending disbelief for what they had likely internally framed as "work for the benefit of national security" or "job pays too well to care".
The second part is that not all of this official channel discussion was immediately wiped by Palantir, but perhaps they also relied on the premise of self-censorship in preventing these conversations at scale.
Either way, I'm somewhat relieved there's someone at Palantir worried about this at all. The more of them who are worried by this, the more leaks we'll see.
Really struggling to understand why they thought, "giant spying program indiscriminately gathering data on everyone in the wold," was ever a good thing.
"When I agreed to work for a well known techno-facist to develop exactly the kind of surveillance tool a facist state would kill for, I had no idea this would descend into fascism!"
Wait...just now!? Lol, even in online tech circles where people are completely willing to throw their morals in the trash in exchange for a job, it's been well known for quite some time now that Palantir is the tippity top of "sell your soul for money" place to work at. This was long before Thiel was in the news and Palantir was selling data and tech to ICE.
Why would it be surprising that you sold your soul to a bunch of fascists, and if you're already working there, do you have even the slightest shred of morality left to even say a word about it!? Apparently so, but talk about drinking the company Kool-Aid. Damn...
"Are We the Baddies?" is a 2006 comedy sketch by the British comedians Mitchell and Webb, performed both on recorded television in That Mitchell and Webb Look and live at The Secret Policeman's Ball.
That Mitchell and Webb Look! Hilarious British sketch comedy show, and if you enjoy it, check out Peep Show by the same comedians, David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Even funnier IMO!
Depolitized white cis hetero dudes will always fall for security (French socialists even reused a far right slogan saying "Security is the first freedom" without even going social security...) as an argument. Some will keep their works hoping for third party regulation so stop them to lescent even further. For Palantir workers though, harder to defend. The palantir is litteraly bad in the lord of the ring
76 Comments
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 158 pts · 145d
Descent into
Glad some of them are finally realizing it at least.
pdxfed@lemmy.world · 50 pts · 144d
"the arm patch, disposal of and disdain for law, security and privacy, alignment with fascists...all of that seems pretty innocuous and normal but when we bored into FDAs data, wow, that really opened my eyes"
Nuremberg 2.0 testimony
Mountainaire@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 144d
Hilarious!
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 144d
Right? Either this is bullshit ‘news’ (high probability) or Palantir employs some truly stupid people.
It’s mission statement was always been “Extreme authoritarianism and subjugation of the individual to the interests of the surveillance state.”
donald_von_shitsnpants@kopitalk.net · 115 pts · 145d
Decent? It was always in plain sight. Palantiri, hello?
architect@thelemmy.club · 48 pts · 144d
People are fucking stupid.
dan1101@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 144d
Yep: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 5 pts · 144d
That's neat, thanks for the lore
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 144d
well known for 10+years, and the way thiel named the company too.
Korkki@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 144d
I still have only vague ideas what they even are and do and why they are special. Yeah, marketing, data brokering, spying, PR, social engineering, propaganda, but then how does that differ from Meta and Google.
Siegfried@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 144d
Werent palantir those shady orbs from LOTR? You know, the backports sauron used to spy on us...
Zagorath@quokk.au · 5 pts · 144d
The palantíri were created by elves and weren't inherently evil. It was only when Sauron captured them and exerted his will over them to make it difficult for anyone to use them without sending straight to him that they became evil.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 144d
thiel never getting that far into the context, is only obsessed with spying on people.
mpramann@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 144d
Oh he knows. There are several quotes from him acknowledging that he is evil. He does not care as long as it supports his vision for the future.
marlowe221@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 144d
This may an overly cynical take, though that seems hard to do these days, but I’ve always believed they are intentionally vague… even to their customers.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 144d
now delving into peddling the struggling AI system they are using.
Zorque@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 144d
They were a tool for good before they were corrupted, though.
CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social · 16 pts · 144d
Were they, though?
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 144d
Ungoliant says, "yes."
Domino@quokk.au · 8 pts · 144d
No they weren’t?
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 144d
https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri
How Are so many people so ignorant and confident at the same time? You're all acting like you know what you're talking about...
Domino@quokk.au · 6 pts · 144d
Oh you mean in fiction!
Bahnd@lemmy.world · 95 pts · 144d
You would think the name was a dead give away that they were cartoonishly evil?
I have no simpathy at all for them at all.
Telorand@reddthat.com · 50 pts · 144d
A few years ago, I had an acquaintance that was trying to join the CIA. She got several rounds into the interview process but ultimately took a job at Meta (who she was also interviewing with). She got fired in one of the later mass layoffs, but she chose to work there. She knew the kind of company they were and are, and she was like, "They gonna pay me lots of money? Then I'm in!" And look how that worked out.
There is no world in which these companies are doing anything good, and if you think they are, then you're the ignorant rube they want to help bring about technofascism, and they're fine tossing you into their grinder as meat as they please.
prodaccess@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 144d
I was recently recruited by Meta, had a bad feeling, did some research, and sure enough, it was was a terrible place to work, by all accounts. I already had doubts about Meta and deleted my Facebook account over a decade ago. Needless to stay I withdrew my candicacy.
Like attracts like. I hope all these people selling their souls and their country out for money to companies like Meta and Palantir, who make money hand over first by actively making society less safe and free, get what's coming to them.
I would never work for Meta, TikTok, Palantir, etc no matter how much they paid me.
sprigatito@lemmy.zip · 46 pts · 144d
Why would you even name yourself after the Palantiri, they're literally tainted with bad omens.
They are implied to be made by Fëanor, who in rage perpetuated a mass-slaying of his kin because they refused to give him their boats, which he needed for his crazy revenge quest.
Some were then literally used by Sauron, who literally is the servant of basically Satan, to gain knowledge so he could conquer Middle-earth.
Like why would you think that'd be a good name for a company.
nickiwest@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 144d
Probably because you have the hubris necessary to believe that if the One Ring were in your hands, you would be strong enough to wield it without becoming corrupted.
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 144d
Samwise was a fictional character sadly
mcv@lemmy.zip · 26 pts · 144d
It's because they've read the books, know they're popular, want to be hip and interesting, and completely miss the morality of the books they think they love.
Look at Musk naming barges after space ships from a society where people can change gender practically at will, yet can't deal with the fact that his daughter is transgender.
LSNLDN@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 144d
I’d thought it was more active vice signalling, like they want everyone to know they’re evil.
SalamenceFury@piefed.social · 68 pts · 144d
None of them realized it before? Well then, if you can talk the talk, walk the walk and quit in masse.
Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca · 24 pts · 144d
Oh they realized. But it was their job. To question it might put them out of work. Can't take the risk. Can't do anything about it now - try to blame Theil or Trump - even though they are the ones that built it and looked the other way the entire time. It isn't descending into fascist. It was being built to enable and protect fascism when it came back out in the mainstream.
4am@lemmy.zip · 65 pts · 144d
You mean the backlash to our constant and brutal meddling with the will and sovereignty of the rest of the world, the pillaging and raping of both the earth and the humans who occupy it for our own monetary gain? Living like kings through acts of evil so we could parade around calling ourselves The Greatest Country, and even going so far as to hide the worst of the worst atrocities from our own citizens, and the things that couldn’t escape the historical record being swept away as “but we’re better now!” and pretending that just by “stopping” (which we almost never actually do, we just hide it better) that we’ve fixed the problems?
That terrorism?
I guess 30% of Americans really did know it, and they voted for the most American man they knew of. God this place sucks.
HopeOfTheGunblade@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 56 pts · 144d
Descent?
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 144d
the words coming out of my mouth in disbelief are mirrored as the first comment
hansolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 144d
Exact thing I was thinking.
In order to descend, you have to not start out wanting to enable it. Isn't "Empower the evil bastards of the world" their mission statement?
floofloof@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 142d
Into fascism. But also from fascism.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world · 44 pts · 144d
Wow, must be bad if even the fascists are seeing the 'descent' into fascism as a bad thing.
stardreamer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 15 pts · 144d
What descent? There is no descent. They started at bedrock since the beginning. People should have seen it back then.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 144d
Sarcasm is rather hard to detect over text, especially when I don't add sarcastic quote marks....
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 144d
and a company named palintir too, an objected used by sauron to corrupt people spying.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 144d
Sleepy Barney Rubble ruined that.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 144d
Or do they mean similar to a plane landing at an airport?
blarth@thelemmy.club · 32 pts · 144d
What did they think they were doing, solving child hunger?
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 32 pts · 144d
A decade ago a young an gifted software developer acquaintance of mine was going to work for Palantir and already back then I warned him of the kind of company he was joining.
After the Snowden Revelations it was already pretty obvious that Palantir specialized in data analytics of and overview interfaces for mass surveillance data - they made their money from helping authoritarian activities, including those in supposed Democracies.
It's pretty obvious that a company doing that is built on the principled of having no Ethics or Morals.
Go to bed with the dogs, wake up with fleas.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 144d
i first became aware of the company, when i was searching on lore about the lotr objects, what you know it led to a website owned by thiel, and then it became more apparent when helped sued gawker who was likely investigating thiel on his companies shady practices.
fiat_lux@lemmy.zip · 30 pts · 144d
There are two surprising aspects of this to me. Firstly that the employees feel confident enough to express concern about Palantir's actions in official channels. I would have thought that the nature of their work was obvious enough that this would be a cultural taboo and therefore self-censored. I guess some of them have limits to suspending disbelief for what they had likely internally framed as "work for the benefit of national security" or "job pays too well to care".
The second part is that not all of this official channel discussion was immediately wiped by Palantir, but perhaps they also relied on the premise of self-censorship in preventing these conversations at scale.
Either way, I'm somewhat relieved there's someone at Palantir worried about this at all. The more of them who are worried by this, the more leaks we'll see.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 144d
the last thing thiel wants its his shady company being in the news, he has always tried to prevent that.
pjwestin@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 144d
Really struggling to understand why they thought, "giant spying program indiscriminately gathering data on everyone in the wold," was ever a good thing.
merdaverse@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 144d
"But you see, they told me it's for democracy and freedom!"
pjwestin@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 144d
"When I agreed to work for a well known techno-facist to develop exactly the kind of surveillance tool a facist state would kill for, I had no idea this would descend into fascism!"
ICastFist@programming.dev · 1 pts · 143d
Ankh-Morporkian democracy of one man, one vote: the Patrician is the man and he has the vote.
z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml · 21 pts · 144d
Wait...just now!? Lol, even in online tech circles where people are completely willing to throw their morals in the trash in exchange for a job, it's been well known for quite some time now that Palantir is the tippity top of "sell your soul for money" place to work at. This was long before Thiel was in the news and Palantir was selling data and tech to ICE.
Why would it be surprising that you sold your soul to a bunch of fascists, and if you're already working there, do you have even the slightest shred of morality left to even say a word about it!? Apparently so, but talk about drinking the company Kool-Aid. Damn...
pyre@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 144d
can't blame them; there were no signs in the beginning.
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 144d
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 144d
"Descent"? As in even further than rock bottom?
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 144d
they're gonna drill
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 144d
*Actively maneuvering into…
“Descent” sounds passive.
Still collecting that paycheck and not rocking the boat.
fox2263@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 144d
Employees of Evil Corp wondering if what they’re doing benefits Evil
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 144d
I have seen the "are we the baddies" meme many times, anyone know where it's from?
rhel@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 21 pts · 144d
Source: Wikipedia
pjwestin@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 144d
Here the original sketch.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 144d
Ha ha ha thank you so much!
KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 144d
Oh you've got a lot of very good TV to watch. The show is "That Mitchell and Webb Look"
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 144d
Will do, thank you very much!
DisgruntledGorillaGang@reddthat.com · 6 pts · 144d
That Mitchell and Webb Look! Hilarious British sketch comedy show, and if you enjoy it, check out Peep Show by the same comedians, David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Even funnier IMO!
luthis@lemmy.nz · 5 pts · 144d
The show is very worth watching and most is on YouTube.
MadameBisaster@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 144d
I think horrible history? Nope: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/are-we-the-baddies
lechekaflan@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 144d
Fuck around and find out. Goddamn idiots should have known what they're getting into. Like their boss having moments of megalomania.
davetortoise@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 144d
"Descent"? Which way is down when you're at the bottom?
AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev · 6 pts · 143d
"Descent". As if they were not obviously and explicitly fascist from day 1. How dumb can you be?
Fuck these fuckers. I'll forgive them when they start actively sabotaging every single thing they can from the inside.
Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 142d
Yeah you have to be willfully ignorant to work there and claim its only now descending into fascism
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 144d
they knew, you just justified because it was just a job.
lol_idk@piefed.social · 5 pts · 144d
Decently into Facism
db2@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 144d
The call is coming from inside the
housefascist companye461h@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 144d
They need to unionize if they want to see change
Melusine@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · -5 pts · 145d
Depolitized white cis hetero dudes will always fall for security (French socialists even reused a far right slogan saying "Security is the first freedom" without even going social security...) as an argument. Some will keep their works hoping for third party regulation so stop them to lescent even further. For Palantir workers though, harder to defend. The palantir is litteraly bad in the lord of the ring