The Anti-Palantir Manifesto

https://nonogra.ph/the-anti-palantir-manifesto-07-20-2026

by arkhiver • 3 days ago

81 21 3 days ago

heyts• 3 days ago

Looks like a dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48747772

jdw64• 3 days ago

I read the entire manifesto, and while I understand the anger, I wonder if generational hatred is really necessary. Of course, the older generation dominates, but that's the conclusion most societies reach anyway. The Baby Boomers before me were also dominated by the older generation of their time. This cycle has always existed. The real problem is that the fundamental nature of society has changed—with social friction diminishing, consumption centers converging, and wealth becoming concentrated. This is ultimately a problem of wealth redistribution, not the older generation itself. And among the older generation, unless they're in specific industries, there are many who have failed. They're not people to be excluded—they're part of our society.

There are some points I agree with. I agree with things like intergenerational resource distribution, but overall, this is the anger of young people, and I actually like that anger.

They say it's code vs law, but that code only works on specific platforms. Everyone loves open source, but they forget that the infrastructure to run that open source actually sits on top of large corporations.

It's true that programmers are the designers of power structures. I've also worked on one of the biggest systems in my career—a real-time streaming site for gambling—and I agree with the idea that once you participate in that, your responsibility doesn't just disappear.

Personally, this reads less as an anti-Palantir manifesto and more as anger toward the old guard's power. I think even if Palantir disappeared, as long as demand and data exist, another company would take its place.

So if it's truly an anti-surveillance manifesto, it shouldn't target a specific company name, but rather how data flows and power combine to attack us.

If that were the case, it would also need to attack the contradictions within open source itself. It would have to list Google's wrongdoings, and mention how Google keeps Mozilla Firefox alive just to avoid antitrust laws. In the end, it wouldn't be a simple good vs evil narrative, but something more tangled and complex.

Anyway, I agree with the intent, but there are many points in the manifesto that I find hard to agree with.

OrvalWintermute4• 3 days ago

I think this manifesto conflates Palantir with:

The CIA

The NSA

JSOC

The US Armed Forces

Weapons Contractors

Law Enforcement

Federal Counter-Intelligence

Various dictatorships

Criminal Enterprises

Hit squads

JSR_FDED• 3 days ago

Kind of a problem though, if that’s who you’re getting mixed up with.

gcr• 3 days ago

Palantir pioneered forward-deployed engineering, aren’t they deeply embedded in the above?

xboxnolifes• 3 days ago

They (maybe) pioneered forward-deployed software engineers. They certainly didn't pioneer sending engineers, or other experts, to help integrate systems.

OrvalWintermute4• 3 days ago

no one is going to conflate a Palantir FDE with an actual pipehitter

Contractors doing IT support aren't "Operators" in the tactical sense, nor agents in the LE sense, nor Officers in the IC sense, nor a Boeing/Lockheed/Leidos/etc type developing weapons.

This is just a new method to scapegoat a company

leonidasrup3• 3 days ago

In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s investment arm, was early investor into Palantir.

"The company has found itself at the center of a topic that has become especially important for the United States: how to use AI in defense, intelligence and government management. Palantir has historically been close to this market. Its early investor was In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s investment arm, and its largest customers for a long time were U.S. government agencies and the military. That connection has become even stronger: last year, Palantir had nearly $900 million in contracts with the Pentagon, and earlier the company received a U.S. Army contract worth up to $10 billion over 10 years."

https://tradersunion.com/news/editors-picks/show/1992613-pal...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir

OrvalWintermute4• 3 days ago

The same could be said about Oracle though, that they received the benfits of early investment by the CIA.

However scary Oracle license auditors are though, no one conflates them with the CIA.

We're now in an era where people are actively trying to compare a contractor doing some type of IT support, to a company.

gremlinunderway• 3 days ago

What about this is unique to Palantir at all? As far as I'm aware, there are many, many more companies deeply embedded with the US intelligence community and law enforcement and Palantir isn't all that special here. Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, etc. all have massive contracts directly supporting the same thing. I don't understand what makes Palantir special here.

jauntywundrkind• 3 days ago

I'm not sure bow many special services the big tech companies provide.

Palantir's demo videos are very "we filtered down this list of people, here's the satellite imagery now, and we integrate well with your repaer drones and missiles systems to complete the kill chain! One click kill!" They probably patented & trademarked exactly that terminology. The Amazon of barely reviewed murder.

warumdarum• 3 days ago

The data its built on. Science goes where the data is and all of metas/googles social network data, aka all of human behavioral data builds the actual basis for Sims. The palantir in the company name is a reference to cellphones. Seeing stones to look into the heart of the man of the west and east..

Its basically a privatized science. With that you can give accurate scenario tree modeling and predictions to governments free of the retardations, idealizations and ideologies that plague the open source "sciences" that actually don't even want to know.

They also sell Datamining related tools that allow to implement policies.

Before 2008 - 2012 there buisness base just didn't exist.

dzhiurgis• 3 days ago

My guess is that it works so well that actual criminal enterprises and foreign adversaries found it a risk - so they send bots to brigade every comment section.

tancop• 3 days ago

they dont need bots. all normal people know that total usa and big tech domination would turn the world into the worst dictatorship in history. alex karp wants a future where anyone who speaks out against the government gets tracked down and threatened with a drone strike on their home.

if fighting against it means supporting cartels and china then so be it.

red-iron-pine• 2 days ago

criminal enterprises don't waste time on PR, and foreign adversaries would send bots to brigade anything and everything positive about their targets

watwut• 3 days ago

That the founder published his own manifesto where he outlined his company political goals?

adrian_b• 3 days ago

Any manifesto of this kind unavoidably contains many naive parts.

The reason is that it is always easy to notice what is bad around you, but it is very difficult to conceive what should be done about it.

The paragraphs of the manifesto about how serious the problem of mass surveillance and unaccountability of private companies has become, are undeniably correct.

Which is the solution for a better future is much less obvious.

Xmd5a• 3 days ago

It's obviously body-integrated cryptography or your whole activity – own your data. With markets that retrospectively evaluate what's it's worth.

The Anti-Palantir Manifesto

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