[smegma2]

Not trying to be contrarian here, but I don’t get the problem. What’s wrong with Palantir producing weapons or military intelligence? How is it different from making guns?

Is the problem what those things are used for, or is it the way Palantir does it?

[bigyabai]

Palantir aggregates immorally collected advertisement data and de-anonymizes it before selling it to the government. It's abuse of a dual-use data source that has no opt-out for any free citizen; maybe that concerns you, maybe it doesn't.

Their biggest issue is their leadership, though. If Alex Karp had two ounces of morality to rub together then it might be an easier pill to swallow, but instead he harps about how proud they are to kill people with AdSense data. It feels like the immorality is the point.

[gspetr]

It's because there's a built-in conflict of interest in most for-profit companies.

It's in a business' best interest to maximize demand for its products. Which is mostly fine for society, country, and the world by large if you're selling paper cups.

However, if you want to sell more weapons you are interested in lobbying for events that increase the consumption of weapons, in other words: wars.

See the problem yet?

[Sparkle-san]

I think fewer people would care about Palantir (and several other notable companies) if their CEOs/founders weren't using the company as a platform for their own ambitions and ideologies.

[gkoberger]

For me, it's the blur between who makes decisions. I don't love our government making decisions about who lives or dies, but I much prefer decisions to be made by a/ a human b/ one who isn't beholden to shareholders.

[mingus88]

There is a straight line from Eisenhower’s farewell speech about the perils of the military industrial complex to where we are right now.

Read that speech. Read “War is a racket” by Smedly Butler.

Do you think it’s a good thing that Palantir execs (Shankar and Bob Mcgrew, now at openAI) have been made Lt Cols of the U.S. Army?

They aren’t just making guns or information systems. They’re running the show and profiting on it.

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164460/1a-army-07-03-2025

[GuinansEyebrows]

Allowing private-sector warfare manufacturers creates a profit motive for warfare, surveillance etc. It’s in palantir’s (or Raytheon, or Northrop, or BAH…), and their stockholders’, economic interest to promote and extend conflict. Many people think this is bad (including me).

[zoklet-enjoyer]

Look at what's happening in Lebanon, Palestine, Iran. Everyone involved in helping with those mass murders is evil.

Edit: I see I'm being downvoted. What is your argument in favor of this? How big of a degenerate, amoral, psychopath do you have to be to justify this?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/14/lebanon-israel...

"Israel has carried out at least 37 attacks against healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, including against the state civil defence and Lebanese Red Cross, since the current hostilities began, Lebanese authorities said.

The war in Lebanon started on 2 March after Hezbollah launched a volley of rockets at Israel, triggering a swift Israeli bombing campaign across the country. Fighting has since escalated, with Hezbollah continuing its rocket fire and Israeli troops invading south Lebanon.

At least 826 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes, according to the ministry of health, and about 1 million have been displaced."

[pickleglitch]

Well, as the saying goes, guns don't kill people, people kill people. But now, thanks to companies like Palantir, we can essentially make guns that actually do kill people.

[JumpinJack_Cash]

> > What’s wrong with Palantir producing weapons or military intelligence? How is it different from making guns?

Palantir leadership has a long history of needing to be cruel and antisocial in a very loud way in order to feel alive .

[brendoelfrendo]

> How is it different from making guns?

It doesn't have to be! Being an arms dealer is also a moral failing.

[dudefeliciano]

You don't see a problem with a private company selling software as a service to spy on and bomb people? Guys I know we've known about this shit at least since Snowden, but this is not normal and not how things should be run. When you accept these problems as normal modus operandi, you are actually enabling it.

[EPWN3D]

He shows no remorse for any innocent lives lost during these operations. He emphasizes that the "minimum" number of innocent deaths has been achieved, and for him, that's job done.

You can accept that warfare is sometimes necessary and that innocent lives are sometimes lost. But necessity shouldn't be enough to wipe away any semblance of remorse if you have a functioning moral conscience.

Karp may be right on the merits right now, but he's clearly a broken human being. This is not someone I want involved in our country's warfare apparatus for the long term, because eventually his sociopathy will kill people who didn't need to die.

[bibimsz]

liberals have no problem with killing, they just want to be the ones doing it.

[throwaway27448]

I don't know. What's wrong with being a serial killer?