Alex Karp seems to think that openly boasting about the lethal uses of his products is somehow endearing for its honesty, as if being horrified by violence and profiteering from violence is so...last century. He thinks we're going to be so distracted by his hair and how amorally hip and eccentric he thinks he is that we'll forget about both the Palestinian flesh and blood humans he's helping to murder and the imminent death of privacy and civl liberties in the U.S. being brought about by Palantir. He's a piece of shit.
Ah yes, that's another calling card for this kind of politics - the assumption that the entire working class is a bunch of boiler-suited Archie Bunkers.
That belief underpins the entirety of elite thought and belief as to ordinary Americans. "We are smarter and better than them and deserve, as an obvious result, to rule."
If anyone here hasn’t seen that interview, Karp is flopping around like a methed up Jeff Dunham dummy that just got tased. Worth a watch to dispel any notion that these “elites” have any power but the green.
I call this mode of right-wing politics "the crass struggle". At its root is the aim to divert the attention of the working class from their actual class-based disadvantages and the role of the corporate and ruling elites in creating and sustaining them by fostering working-class grievances over their cultural differences with non-corporate and non-ruling elites.
I do not usually agree with everything you write but I do with this essay.
But is seems possible this Venezuela war is more about Smartmatic and Dominion, which would be on Trump's mind. I wondered for at least a decade why local county governments would vote to pay for these expensive machines. They were pushed by Obama and it turns out the money was
"gifted" by the federal government in many cases. It is a bigger problem than small volumes of cocaine going anywhere.
You do realize that the supposed Venezuelan connection to Smartmatic and Dominion was so thoroughly disproven that it resulted in Fox News paying nearly $1B - the largest defamation settlement in U.S history?
Great brief essay and I agree with your central premise.
However, concerning Karp (and many others), I think you're discounting the possibility he actually believes the nonsense he says (and to be clear it's not just him). In Karp's case a few months ago he went viral for comments on using predictive AI in Gaza and Palantir's IDF relationship. The gist of his argument was, we're the good guys, they're bad, so we should always be stronger and play whoop ass because since we're the good guys, we can never do bad/wrong.
And in a way his comments on fentanyl/Venezuela exposes the same logic.
We often mistake attributing intentions such as malice when it's ignorance.
In terms of your main point about using the myth of representing the everyday worker [paternalistically], you're absolutely right.
But here any wise political observer knows the left vs right is an illusion to keep the lower 90% from identifying the most likely source of their problems.
Politics is keyfabe, and DJT gave ample demonstration of this with the Epstein saga back in June when he tried to gaslight his base and unintentionally birthed the America First monster. The absence of the - let's call it "the establishment Dems Clinton/Obama faction" - from directly criticizing trump, like back in 2016 with Russia gate, is the quid pro quo.
So I think what you wrote about is better understood within the framework of elite factions competing intra-elite. At the end of the day they propose new shit draped in fancy narratives that's identical to the old shit. The TechBros™ are the new aristocracy pushing out the old.
Karp is being honest, it's just that his "genius" on one thing (creating Palantir) doesn't translate to other things, and his ethics are questionable to say the least.
More than a good guys/bad guys schtick, I think Karp is leaning into sanitization of the role of tech in good old-fashioned murder. I imagine he's expecting and hoping that young people, especially, won't make a connection between the tech they hold in their hands every day and the bright red blood that comes out of Palestinian bodies that are blown apart and crushed. This dissonance may actually be at work in his own fevered brain or it may not, but he benefits from the idea that imperial violence is a thing of the past and that all our handwringing over Israel's genocidal violence either is too remote for us to care about over here, or has nothing to do with him, or both.
But ascribing motivations and malevolence is conjecture. It's more of a fantasy and fills a simplistic world view where evil doers are plotting to bring suffering and destruction... (I was going to write: enslave millions, but thought better of it! ;).
Seriously though, I honestly do believe, as unfortunate as it may be, that everyone wakes up in the morning and believes themselves to be the self righteous good guy. This was just as true of all sides during WW2 and WW1. Every colonizer and invader thought they were doing their victims a favor. Every side always believes they're the good team fighting the bad team. Even psychopaths and megalomaniacs believe they are righteous. That's the banality of evil. Just following orders.
Karp was pretty transparent on justifying imperial prerogatives on the basis of Israel's right to do as it sees fit. We could say he's a zealot.
I think you're right but I suspect he also girds what passes for his conscience with some comforting ideas, like that "It's just neutral technology that can be used for good or bad." He sees, and hopes others see, the connection between what he produces and Israel's violence as so convoluted that he can go about the talk circuit like a respectable entrepreneur. In other words, there are likely multiple forms of mental gymnastics a guy like that engages in so as to not see his role in genocide. Ego is one of them; he's said he thinks Palantir is the most important tech company in the country. And then there's being Jewish and how that's been weaponized by Zionists. He's certainly a zealot, and a damn creepy one. In any case, some of his rationalizations are used by regular, middle-class people who work for evil corporations: If I don't do this job, someone else will. I'm just a paper pusher, I don't drop bombs, etc. The size of the world and the complexity of conflicts helps people mentally shield themselves from their role in terrible things.
I partly agree with the latter part, in terms of ego, as it's something inherent to all of us and mastering one's ego requires inner work and a certain predisposition, which in today's world is not valued. I also agree that in all likelihood he probably believes the Zionist coolaid, like many others.
Where I would disagree is I don't believe he sees Palantir as neutral. From his viral comments a few months ago, I think he explicitly believes in the idea of the necessity of technological dominance being firmly in the hands of the "West" and that the Zionist vision is the good and righteous vision. In his viral comments responding to a pro-palestinian heckler, his disdain for collateral damage was quite clear. The AI tech used in Gaza (as reported by +972 magazine) explicitly targets "militants" when they're home with their families (the programs are called "lavender" and "where's daddy"). Also recently reports have emerged of Palantir tech being used in the pager attacks, which also were quite indiscriminate. Stepping back, it takes a fanatic to believe their cause is so righteous that 'anything goes'. And we can't discount the possibility of reality being a lot worse than the fragments we're able to piece together from a few articles and viral videos.
Sounds right from the totality of his comments. The guy's a psychopath. What strikes me when I see him talk is how he doesn't seem to expect to be called out. He seems to imagine he's some kind of New Business Hipster we'll all find eccentric and interesting instead of sociopathic. Most people in his position hem and haw and twist arguments and avoid uncomfortable questions. Not this guy. Wow.
The major hurdle here is that most believe that boats with four or more outboards traveling at high speeds to evade a Coast Guard blockade are not sport craft and that their obvious purpose makes them perfectly acceptable targets. This is of a piece with other similar shibboleths of the left that require suspension of common sense to accept. Karp is just adopting that thread. Being rich doesn't necessarily make you stupid.
"Perfectly acceptable" by what standard? This behavior directed toward the U.S. by anyone else would have us gearing up to attack them in a New York minute.
I also recall the earth was the center of the universe because a Pope said so, though the star navigation charts had been written centuries earlier by the Timurid emperor. More recently I recall economic and personal destruction demanded by courts if anyone pointed out the link between vaccination and autism.
Courts are valuable to adjudicate the law but courts cannot adjudicate the truth. I try to stay open minded about the universe.
Thank you for this. They really think we're dumb, don't they.
Alex Karp seems to think that openly boasting about the lethal uses of his products is somehow endearing for its honesty, as if being horrified by violence and profiteering from violence is so...last century. He thinks we're going to be so distracted by his hair and how amorally hip and eccentric he thinks he is that we'll forget about both the Palestinian flesh and blood humans he's helping to murder and the imminent death of privacy and civl liberties in the U.S. being brought about by Palantir. He's a piece of shit.
Ah yes, that's another calling card for this kind of politics - the assumption that the entire working class is a bunch of boiler-suited Archie Bunkers.
That belief underpins the entirety of elite thought and belief as to ordinary Americans. "We are smarter and better than them and deserve, as an obvious result, to rule."
You absolutely nailed it.
If anyone here hasn’t seen that interview, Karp is flopping around like a methed up Jeff Dunham dummy that just got tased. Worth a watch to dispel any notion that these “elites” have any power but the green.
OK, going to watch it right now...
Right? He was ready to jump out of his skin. He must have been on some of that cocaine he's pretending isn't on those boats.
L-Dawg with another banger
I call this mode of right-wing politics "the crass struggle". At its root is the aim to divert the attention of the working class from their actual class-based disadvantages and the role of the corporate and ruling elites in creating and sustaining them by fostering working-class grievances over their cultural differences with non-corporate and non-ruling elites.
I understand now. The reason they're upset about Trump blowing up the fast boats is because it's driving up the price of their nose candy.
I do not usually agree with everything you write but I do with this essay.
But is seems possible this Venezuela war is more about Smartmatic and Dominion, which would be on Trump's mind. I wondered for at least a decade why local county governments would vote to pay for these expensive machines. They were pushed by Obama and it turns out the money was
"gifted" by the federal government in many cases. It is a bigger problem than small volumes of cocaine going anywhere.
You do realize that the supposed Venezuelan connection to Smartmatic and Dominion was so thoroughly disproven that it resulted in Fox News paying nearly $1B - the largest defamation settlement in U.S history?
Truth.
Karp is worse than Altman is worse than Zuck is worse than...they just keep outdoing one another in their awfulness
The trendline is scary, genuinely
Great brief essay and I agree with your central premise.
However, concerning Karp (and many others), I think you're discounting the possibility he actually believes the nonsense he says (and to be clear it's not just him). In Karp's case a few months ago he went viral for comments on using predictive AI in Gaza and Palantir's IDF relationship. The gist of his argument was, we're the good guys, they're bad, so we should always be stronger and play whoop ass because since we're the good guys, we can never do bad/wrong.
And in a way his comments on fentanyl/Venezuela exposes the same logic.
We often mistake attributing intentions such as malice when it's ignorance.
In terms of your main point about using the myth of representing the everyday worker [paternalistically], you're absolutely right.
But here any wise political observer knows the left vs right is an illusion to keep the lower 90% from identifying the most likely source of their problems.
Politics is keyfabe, and DJT gave ample demonstration of this with the Epstein saga back in June when he tried to gaslight his base and unintentionally birthed the America First monster. The absence of the - let's call it "the establishment Dems Clinton/Obama faction" - from directly criticizing trump, like back in 2016 with Russia gate, is the quid pro quo.
So I think what you wrote about is better understood within the framework of elite factions competing intra-elite. At the end of the day they propose new shit draped in fancy narratives that's identical to the old shit. The TechBros™ are the new aristocracy pushing out the old.
Karp is being honest, it's just that his "genius" on one thing (creating Palantir) doesn't translate to other things, and his ethics are questionable to say the least.
More than a good guys/bad guys schtick, I think Karp is leaning into sanitization of the role of tech in good old-fashioned murder. I imagine he's expecting and hoping that young people, especially, won't make a connection between the tech they hold in their hands every day and the bright red blood that comes out of Palestinian bodies that are blown apart and crushed. This dissonance may actually be at work in his own fevered brain or it may not, but he benefits from the idea that imperial violence is a thing of the past and that all our handwringing over Israel's genocidal violence either is too remote for us to care about over here, or has nothing to do with him, or both.
Perhaps.
But ascribing motivations and malevolence is conjecture. It's more of a fantasy and fills a simplistic world view where evil doers are plotting to bring suffering and destruction... (I was going to write: enslave millions, but thought better of it! ;).
Seriously though, I honestly do believe, as unfortunate as it may be, that everyone wakes up in the morning and believes themselves to be the self righteous good guy. This was just as true of all sides during WW2 and WW1. Every colonizer and invader thought they were doing their victims a favor. Every side always believes they're the good team fighting the bad team. Even psychopaths and megalomaniacs believe they are righteous. That's the banality of evil. Just following orders.
Karp was pretty transparent on justifying imperial prerogatives on the basis of Israel's right to do as it sees fit. We could say he's a zealot.
I think you're right but I suspect he also girds what passes for his conscience with some comforting ideas, like that "It's just neutral technology that can be used for good or bad." He sees, and hopes others see, the connection between what he produces and Israel's violence as so convoluted that he can go about the talk circuit like a respectable entrepreneur. In other words, there are likely multiple forms of mental gymnastics a guy like that engages in so as to not see his role in genocide. Ego is one of them; he's said he thinks Palantir is the most important tech company in the country. And then there's being Jewish and how that's been weaponized by Zionists. He's certainly a zealot, and a damn creepy one. In any case, some of his rationalizations are used by regular, middle-class people who work for evil corporations: If I don't do this job, someone else will. I'm just a paper pusher, I don't drop bombs, etc. The size of the world and the complexity of conflicts helps people mentally shield themselves from their role in terrible things.
I partly agree with the latter part, in terms of ego, as it's something inherent to all of us and mastering one's ego requires inner work and a certain predisposition, which in today's world is not valued. I also agree that in all likelihood he probably believes the Zionist coolaid, like many others.
Where I would disagree is I don't believe he sees Palantir as neutral. From his viral comments a few months ago, I think he explicitly believes in the idea of the necessity of technological dominance being firmly in the hands of the "West" and that the Zionist vision is the good and righteous vision. In his viral comments responding to a pro-palestinian heckler, his disdain for collateral damage was quite clear. The AI tech used in Gaza (as reported by +972 magazine) explicitly targets "militants" when they're home with their families (the programs are called "lavender" and "where's daddy"). Also recently reports have emerged of Palantir tech being used in the pager attacks, which also were quite indiscriminate. Stepping back, it takes a fanatic to believe their cause is so righteous that 'anything goes'. And we can't discount the possibility of reality being a lot worse than the fragments we're able to piece together from a few articles and viral videos.
Sounds right from the totality of his comments. The guy's a psychopath. What strikes me when I see him talk is how he doesn't seem to expect to be called out. He seems to imagine he's some kind of New Business Hipster we'll all find eccentric and interesting instead of sociopathic. Most people in his position hem and haw and twist arguments and avoid uncomfortable questions. Not this guy. Wow.
The major hurdle here is that most believe that boats with four or more outboards traveling at high speeds to evade a Coast Guard blockade are not sport craft and that their obvious purpose makes them perfectly acceptable targets. This is of a piece with other similar shibboleths of the left that require suspension of common sense to accept. Karp is just adopting that thread. Being rich doesn't necessarily make you stupid.
"Perfectly acceptable" by what standard? This behavior directed toward the U.S. by anyone else would have us gearing up to attack them in a New York minute.
"War! What is it good for?!" / "Many people who have vested interests..."
... should be the second line.
PS cool word you made up there.
Which nation has declared war on the USA because of the destruction of drug boats in the Caribbean?
I also recall the earth was the center of the universe because a Pope said so, though the star navigation charts had been written centuries earlier by the Timurid emperor. More recently I recall economic and personal destruction demanded by courts if anyone pointed out the link between vaccination and autism.
Courts are valuable to adjudicate the law but courts cannot adjudicate the truth. I try to stay open minded about the universe.