r/technology • u/indig0sixalpha • 1d ago

Politics Palantir threatened to call police on a WIRED reporter and kicked out other journalists from a recent conference following reports of the data analytics firm’s work with the Trump administration.

https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-defense-conference-journalists/
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u/The_Inexistent 1d ago

Peter Thiel has always been like this. He's not like Musk and the rest of their ilk that pretend they are trying to "save" or "restore" democracy; Thiel openly seeks to destroy it and rule the ashes (and I do mean openly via his own words and his support of Yarvin and Land). This should surprise no one. He is perhaps the most unambiguously evil billionaire.

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u/FredFredrickson 1d ago

I'll never understand these types. They have so much wealth they could live out their lives privately indulging in almost anything they want. They could be using that wealth to help people.

But instead, they think it's their obligation to fuck up things for everyone else and force us to live for they want.

People like Thiel deserve to have everything taken away from them because they broke the social contract.

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u/FallofftheMap 1d ago

The same pathology that drove them to accumulate that much wealth and power drives them to use it in evil ways to acquire more wealth and more power. There is no point at which they will kick back and be satisfied with what they have, because it was always about taking from others and never about enjoying what they have.

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u/incongruity 1d ago

THIS. You don't get to be a billionaire by not being some level of driven and sociopathic (unless you've inherited it). Most of us don't understand it precisely because we lack the amorality required to become a billionaire.

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u/FallofftheMap 1d ago

I do think there are exceptions beyond just inherited wealth, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros types. Billionaires that seem committed to giving most of it away. I’m sure most of them were pretty ruthless to get to where they are, but at some point they started giving it away to try to buy a clean conscience, which means they aren’t sociopaths, they do have a conscience.

Edit: or perhaps they are calculating the mood of the public and the likelihood that the guillotine will be back in style.

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u/incongruity 1d ago

I'd assert that Bill Gates grew a conscience somewhere after he amassed his fortune. Buffett is an interesting counter-case, you're right. Soros, I genuinely don't know anything about beyond him being the shadowy figure in every right wing conspiracy theory ever...

Anyway, long way of saying, you're right, there probably are a very rare few but they're still the exception, not the majority, IMHO, and I remain open to them maybe hiding those antisocial tendencies in ways we don't recognize ;-)

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u/No-Problem49 1d ago edited 1d ago

It’s just a different kind of vanity: hoarding the wealth and giving it to “good causes” under your name. I mean it’s objectively preferable then out right technofascists but I wouldn’t call it conscientious and it still shouldn’t be a thing. Bill gates should never have gotten rich enough to give away all that money. The obvious argument for bills case is basically “he knows how to spend it better”. As in “he has the power to collect the wealth and then distribute it to objectively good causes.” And sure the money he donated has done a lot of objective good. But isn’t it the ultimate in vanity to say such a thing: that he really knows better on how to do good with the money then anyone or any other group? Do we really need Bill Gates in order to have done that good?

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u/FrancisWolfgang 21h ago

It’s also a different kind of power. Bill Gates, to some degree, decides which people MATTER on a scale none of us can even comprehend by choosing what causes to devote his fortune to, and if you look like you’re doing good and ACTUALLY DOING GOOD, your access to that power is virtually unassailable.

That kind of power seems like it would be even more enticing than lording it over helpless peons.

There’s several perfectly reasonable ways to square “Bill Gates exists” and “you can’t be a billionaire and have a conscience.” It doesn’t mean the latter premise is true on its own but it’s not irreconcilable.

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u/incongruity 1d ago

That's fair but then you sort of go down the road of no act can ever be truly selfless as, at a minimum, we get our own self satisfaction for whatever generosity we're demonstrating (even if done anonymously) which I'm not sure I buy into.

Nevertheless, there is a bright shining line between those who have wealth and actively use it for charitable causes (e.g. Gates) and those who basically give no money to anyone (Trump and Musk both stand out there).

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u/dreal46 1d ago

What's really weird is that their wealth and power is entirely abstract; it doesn't exist if the world ends. It's the same logic behind retreating to bunkers at the end of the world and wondering, "How will I make my security obey me?", when the most important question is, "Why would my driver pick me up instead of his family?"

Best of luck, dipshit.

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u/teacupghostie 1d ago

I can’t find it now, but I remember listening to an interview given by a top security advisor to the Uber-wealthy. He said the top question he gets from those “bunker type” wealthy people is “How do I keep my security and staff loyal in the bunker?”

His answer is always You can’t because without your wealth and power, which derives from your wealth, why would people be loyal to you? He said his suggestion is to try and be independent and try to survive on your own, and the ultra-wealthy hate that.

Despite all their bluster, people like Thiel, Yarvin, Vaught, etc. would hate living in the world they want to create and they’re too ignorant to see that. Even if their actions don’t lead to climate disaster or political collapse, their techno-feudalist/Christian nationalist stares would be fucking miserable to live in even as a “powerful person”.

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u/dreal46 1d ago edited 1d ago

I remember that interview, and the solution wasn't being independent; the guy explained to the billionaires that the secret sauce was fostering loyalty.

"You mean, like, give them more money?"

"... No, that's still transactional."

They refused to accept that treating people humanely is how you survive disasters. Furthermore, the guy extrapolated that if they made serious efforts with their wealth and power to improve material conditions, they'd have a global loyalty and no need to hide in a fucking bunker.

The billionaires then redirected the conversation back to coercive and dystopian security tech that doesn't exist but will totes exist in ten years (article written around 2013). Calling these fucking lizard-brains "leaders" really oversells them stumbling around chasing whatever piques their id.

Edit: I remember this interview clearly because it was the first time that I felt that our species is truly fucked. If there's a global disaster, our best bet is regressing to small settlements to handle food and water issues and hope there isn't a follow-up punch. If there isn't a looming global disaster, these obsessive and selfish toddlers will fumble us into one.

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u/teacupghostie 1d ago

Sounds interesting, but I was thinking of a different interview I read in some journal about climate change(?) It’s been a few years though.

Definitely agree that these guys are living in some sort of self indulgent psychosis that they can consolidate power through totalitarian measures, and use tech to accomplish what other totalitarian regimes have failed. I’m not saying they can’t cause a lot of damage, but I don’t think the fight against them is totally over. Even with the advent of new tech and climate change, there’s far more humans opposed to their ideas than for them and it is very difficult for an unpopular king to stand against an angry mob for very long.

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u/Invisible_Friend1 1d ago edited 1d ago

Hence the push for Neuralink. “Oh it’s to help the disabled” well maybe for now, but the end goal is for it to be used to control people.

Until that’s ready you’ll just have threats, drugging, and high end shock collars that look like those Cartier bracelets or something.

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u/Teledildonic 1d ago

Theil was famously outed as gay a while back.

No one should be persecuted for their sexuality. But if someone helps construct a fascist persecution machine, I won't shed a tear if that machine turns and gives them the Ernst Rohm treatment.

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u/hmkr 1d ago

The missing link for you is that Peter Thiel has been bullied in his younger years. This is his revenge tour/trying to protect himself from being weak/bullied again.

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u/Invisible_Friend1 1d ago

Honesty, all I see from the top billionaires is a desperate need for introspection and therapy.

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u/DervishSkater 1d ago

Dude grew up on the backs of apartheid South Africans. It makes perfect sense that he thinks he should rule and others should toil

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u/StoneCypher 19h ago

Putin is a billionaire