7 ms·

I have no strong opinion of Tan, but calling a person who happily worked for (and profited from) Palantir a 'moral canary in a coal mine' seems a bit of a stret

I have no strong opinion of Tan, but calling a person who happily worked for (and profited from) Palantir a 'moral canary in a coal mine' seems a bit of a stretch.

LewisVerstappen 4y ago
Tan worked at Palantir prior to 2007, so if you’re blaming him for Palantir’s work with ICE then… > they out themselves as either evil or stupid
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Aeolun 4y ago
  I dunno, but Palantir has always been a little bit… I mean, it’s kinda in the name.
  - hackernewds 4y ago
    Not really
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      By the time of the LoTR timeframe, when have the palantiri ever been used for good? Seems like malevolently misleading things happen even to the evil characters after they use it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr#Characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr#Characteristics
- stakkur 4y ago
  Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work. I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.
  - maram 4y ago
    Not to defend Thiel, but don’t you think that his exist from Facebook (after 17 years) because of the stance they took at the beginning of the pandemic is worthy of some attention? Specially, that Facebook suffocated voices of Trump’s advisors who opposed the lockdown. “Social media, particularly Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, was actively suffocating voices, including mine, that dissented from the accepted COVID narrative. By August, Facebook told the Washington Post they had taken down seven million posts “for spreading coronavirus misinformation.” Meanwhile, Wikipedia crafted smears and distortions of my background and then locked it to edits”. —Dr. Scott Atlas, A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    I've studied Thiel, he's just not mainstream left. If you want to listen to him with good faith, I enjoyed this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s Doesn't come across evil to me unless by evil you mean just not mainstream left, which might be the correct in the valley.
    - _ugfj 4y ago
      Not "mainstream left"? I guess the right, what was once the far right but today is just the right is indeed not "mainstream left". Make no mistake where he stands: he was one of the largest donors of Trump, served on his transitional team and has once written "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible". https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...
      - systemvoltage 4y ago
        There were hundreds of doners to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, let alone 2016 campaign. If not directly, then through other superPACS including FAANG companies [1]. https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-trump/contributors?cycle=2020&id=N00023864&src=c&type=f https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-tr... If your viewpoint is so myopically constrained by a single data point, I don't know what to say. I find intellectuals from all corners of political spectrum to be interesting. Usually, when people dismiss intellectuals not for their arguments, but by some ostensible thinly veiled morality or the media zeitgeist; it is already an indicator that something interesting is out there. Anyways, all I am saying is that Peter is not evil in any stretch of the definition as the media portrays him. He is just not your typical conformist thinker. [1] They only paused after Jan 6th, they were happily donating to both parties: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-google/google-stops-donations-to-u-s-congress-members-who-voted-against-election-results-idUSKBN29V0EW https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-go...
purple_ferret 4y ago
Yeah but that was before he had the type of money to buy the moral high ground

I have no strong opinion of Tan, but calling a person who happily worked for (and profited from) Palantir a 'moral canary in a coal mine' seems a bit of a stretch.

LewisVerstappen 4y ago

Tan worked at Palantir prior to 2007, so if you’re blaming him for Palantir’s work with ICE then… > they out themselves as either evil or stupid

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Aeolun 4y ago
I dunno, but Palantir has always been a little bit… I mean, it’s kinda in the name.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  Not really
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    By the time of the LoTR timeframe, when have the palantiri ever been used for good? Seems like malevolently misleading things happen even to the evil characters after they use it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr#Characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr#Characteristics
stakkur 4y ago
Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work. I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.
- maram 4y ago
  Not to defend Thiel, but don’t you think that his exist from Facebook (after 17 years) because of the stance they took at the beginning of the pandemic is worthy of some attention? Specially, that Facebook suffocated voices of Trump’s advisors who opposed the lockdown. “Social media, particularly Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, was actively suffocating voices, including mine, that dissented from the accepted COVID narrative. By August, Facebook told the Washington Post they had taken down seven million posts “for spreading coronavirus misinformation.” Meanwhile, Wikipedia crafted smears and distortions of my background and then locked it to edits”. —Dr. Scott Atlas, A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America
- systemvoltage 4y ago
  I've studied Thiel, he's just not mainstream left. If you want to listen to him with good faith, I enjoyed this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s Doesn't come across evil to me unless by evil you mean just not mainstream left, which might be the correct in the valley.
  - _ugfj 4y ago
    Not "mainstream left"? I guess the right, what was once the far right but today is just the right is indeed not "mainstream left". Make no mistake where he stands: he was one of the largest donors of Trump, served on his transitional team and has once written "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible". https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio...
    - systemvoltage 4y ago
      There were hundreds of doners to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, let alone 2016 campaign. If not directly, then through other superPACS including FAANG companies [1]. https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-trump/contributors?cycle=2020&id=N00023864&src=c&type=f https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-tr... If your viewpoint is so myopically constrained by a single data point, I don't know what to say. I find intellectuals from all corners of political spectrum to be interesting. Usually, when people dismiss intellectuals not for their arguments, but by some ostensible thinly veiled morality or the media zeitgeist; it is already an indicator that something interesting is out there. Anyways, all I am saying is that Peter is not evil in any stretch of the definition as the media portrays him. He is just not your typical conformist thinker. [1] They only paused after Jan 6th, they were happily donating to both parties: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-google/google-stops-donations-to-u-s-congress-members-who-voted-against-election-results-idUSKBN29V0EW https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-go...

purple_ferret 4y ago

Yeah but that was before he had the type of money to buy the moral high ground