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This quote from the CEO of Palantir (Alex Karp) haunts me. --- > “I actually am a progressive,” he said. “I want less war. You only stop war by having the be
by Ozzie_osman 1y ago
This quote from the CEO of Palantir (Alex Karp) haunts me.
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> “I actually am a progressive,” he said. “I want less war. You only stop war by having the best technology and by scaring the bejabers — I’m trying to be nice here — out of our adversaries. If they are not scared, they don’t wake up scared, they don’t go to bed scared, they don’t fear that the wrath of America will come down on them, they will attack us. They will attack us everywhere.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/style/alex-karp-palantir.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/style/alex-karp-palantir....
- okasaki 1y agoThe United States is the world's biggest terrorist.
- curiousObject 1y agoNo. They’re all terrorists. All states, all nexuses of control, can be defined as terrorists, if we broaden our definition of terrorist to include states and all their apparatuses. In particular, with reference to the state’s effective monopoly on legal violence. But, amongst those options, you should have the intelligence to choose the least bad. “The United States is the world's biggest terrorist”, is IMHO almost a meaningless claim. It is true, arguably, but in that case it is irrelevant. Based on this interpretation, the US is far from the worst powers in our world. In fact it is above the median.
- okasaki 1y agoReally? What's your ranking then and methodology? IMO one of the primary ways the US terrorizes is by bombing with impunity. According to its own record keeping, the US has dropped 337000 bombs in the last 20 years, or 46 bombs per day. Can you imagine living in one of the countries that the US keeps bombing? Every time you hear an airplane you have to think if you're about to die, or someone you know is about to die, or a school is about to be blown up, or a water treatment facility.
- curiousObject 1y agoNo real methodology. Only my opinion. >Can you imagine living in one of the countries that the US keeps bombing? Every time you hear an airplane you have to think if you're about to die, or someone you know is about to die, or a school is about to be blown up, or a water treatment facility. No, I can’t imagine it. I’m not even capable of imagining it. I agree it must be terrifying, and soul-destroying in the long term.
- plastic-enjoyer 1y agoAmerica was build on paranoia and violence, so this doesn't surprise me very much
- piva00 1y agoIt's quite surprising how long it took for the paranoia and violence to become directed inwards.
- Ozzie_osman 1y agoAt any point in time there are probably many competing ideologies, even ones that are based on strength. For example, "speak softly but carry a big stick" is based on strength, but is pretty different than "they must wake up scared". The issue with the "scared" approach is that all it takes is one country with that ideology for escalations to occur and everyone else to adopt that mindset.
- blitzar 1y ago> “I want less war. But I really really really like having lots of money, like Scrooge McDuck swiming pools of money. If some children half way around the world have to get blown up for me to bathe in fresh $100 bills every day, so be it."
- saubeidl 1y agoterror noun 1) a state of intense or overwhelming fear 2) violence or the threat of violence used as a weapon of intimidation or coercion a regime that rules by terror especially: violent or destructive acts (such as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terror https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terror
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago>You only stop war by having the best technology and by scaring the bejabers — I’m trying to be nice here — out of our adversaries. That's haunting indeed to the naive minds who imagine the world must run on political correctness, rainbows and unicorns, but that's not how the real world works or has ever worked, and nobody can say that he's wrong though just because he's not sugar coating it. You only have peace if everyone is scared of you. Why do only small guys get bullied and not the tall muscular jocks? Why does Russia bully the EU and not the US? Being pacifist doesn't assure you any peace if you're weak, as eventually, inevitably, someone hungry and greedy will build their strength to come for your lunch and you'll have to defend it if you want to keep it, as per human history in the last infinity years. Ask Belgium or NL how their pacifism worked out in WW2 in face of the Nazi army. He should have just said: "Better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war" if he wanted something that sounds nicer.
- whazor 1y agoWhen trust is high, crime and corruption are low. Do you increase trust by making people scared? How can we increase trust? Both internationally, but also nationally?
- breppp 1y agoThat does not work with ideologies that see war as natural or good, as in the example you replied to it's naive to think that the wars of the 20th century were caused by lack of trust, or the 21st
- porridgeraisin 1y agoThat's only been observed for small, close knit communities (regardless of race etc before the pitchfork activists come out). You're never ever getting that for the whole world. Some things (not all) are just a conflict of interest. There's no solution except one with a winner and a loser.
- raverbashing 1y agoYou know, you increase trust also by arresting actual criminals So when the police is happy to fine you for any technicality while people are free to do drugs on the streets (due to bad policy) this brings trust down - like in SF
- bravesoul2 1y agoHaunting part is as if they even care about less war. This is them trying to be progressive!
- mdhb 1y agoI mean he is absolutely not progressive and that was purely just some bullshit he said to the media. This is a far right private enterprise backed by Peter Thiel that is building a civilian surveillance and control apparatus with your tax dollars. Thats the actual truth of the matter.
- heraldgeezer 1y agoI live in Western EU so I like this. Wont affect me and USA military power is not to play with. Yes I support Israel. Gulf War 1 was justified so was Vietnam. Gulf War 2, maybe not but Saddam gone was good. Iran IS our enemy too btw.
- jack_riminton 1y agoSounds pretty smart to me. The best way to beat your enemy is to dissuade them from even trying
- skeezyboy 1y agolike in vietnam? or what about in al qaeda who didnt have a single tank? america arent even that good at war, theyre just not afraid to be underhanded
- lnsru 1y agoIt sounds silly, but the cold war was a nice period of peace. Both sides were prepared and knew what’s coming. So peace was inevitable. When opponent gets weak war happens. Sounds even sillier, but strong and ready armies are warrant of peace.
- maeln 1y ago> but the cold war was a nice period of peace Tell that to the Vietnamese, the Afghan, the Cuban, the korean, ... And arguably you might include a lot of eastern european country. Just because the confrontation didn't happen in the country that were "enemy" didn't mean they didn't cause wars.
- jack_riminton 1y agoBut you're not arguing against the implied alternative, ww3
- maeln 1y agoThere is another alternative : two country not being powerful enough that they can wage a proxy war by using less powerful country. The issue is not the military power, it is the imbalance.
- jack_riminton 1y ago
- kubbelz 1y agoIt's suicidally naive not to pursue military supremacy. Your enemies will. What are you going to do when they appear on your shores to begin the slaughter, enslavement, rape, and pillaging? Write an angry letter? Start an online petition?
- saubeidl 1y agoIt's one thing to pursue military supremacy. It's another to build an Orwellian surveillance state.
- westpfelia 1y agomight as well use it then right? I mean think about it if there was only 1 country on the whole world. Then we would be safe. I mean we would still need to use the military equipment on the people. Anything else but absolute control over everyone would be suicidally naive. Right?
- benterix 1y ago> I mean think about it if there was only 1 country on the whole world. Then we would be safe. This is the logic behind the old-style Jihad. Also the Chinese emperors used the same argument when conquering smaller kingdoms. Unfortunately, what happens in practice is that even in one Islamic country Sunni vs Shia terrorists attacks happen. And in the case of China, the price you pay for superficial peace are Uighur concentration camps, Tibetan self-immolations and so on.
- maeln 1y agoThe worst version of Si vis pacem, para bellum. There is an element of truth, but the reality is when one has overwhelming military over other, they also tend to use it and cause wars. See USA / Irak.
- nandomrumber 1y agoIf you want peace, prepare for war. What is the purpose of using Latin in this context?
- Arnt 1y agoThe quote is old, as old as our month names, which are also Latin, and are Latin because that was the language spoken by the people who named them.
- nandomrumber 1y agoAren't only September, October, November, and December the only unchanged Latin month names?
- throw0101d 1y ago> January (in Latin, Ianuarius) is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions in Roman mythology.[1] * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January#History > The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means "purification", via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February#History > The name of March comes from Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March#History etc
- lostmsu 1y ago
- mschuster91 1y agoHe's not wrong in that excerpt. Russia only dared invade Ukraine because the US under Obama didn't do shit when Assad violated the "red lines" of using chemical weapons and barrel bombs against civilians or when the "little green men" took over Crimea and Donbas. And it's not Obama alone for what it's worth, Trump was just as bad in cozying up to Putin, and us Europeans didn't care either. The secret to the relative period of peace after WW2 was that everyone was mightily afraid of getting smacked hard by the US. The first cracks obviously started back with Vietnam, but the actual erosion of the US hard and soft power was the clusterfucks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- _l7dh 1y agoSounds like a direct quote from some religious ISIS fanatic.
- karmakurtisaani 1y agoAlso probably not far from how Putin justified invading Ukraine.
- usrusr 1y agoClearly shows that he does not understand the concept of cooperation, not outside of how a mob cooperates. He probably considers the Marshall Plan a failure. Yes, strength isn't unimportant. But if that's your only approach you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. May he reap what he saws, preferably with as little collateral as possible.
- owebmaster 1y agoThe problem with using strength as your main tool of "cooperation" is that it can only gets worse. If one keep beating their partners, they will become enemies as soon as the bully gets weak enough.
- aspenmayer 1y agoKarp also mentions being on the populist left in his own words in this video I posted on HN recently where he speaks at the Economic Club of Chicago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44433483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44433483
- tastyface 1y agoWell, its easy to say words that don’t mean anything.
- aspenmayer 1y agoIt doesn’t seem to be forced or compelled speech, as I didn’t see him blinking Morse code, but I’m not trained in recognizing that per se and those kinds of signals are not settled science either. It was a weird thing to hear him say, so I wonder why he said it. Maybe it’s an outsider shtick? I think he genuinely believes that he’s on the left. Total information awareness is a form of peace through superior firepower, so maybe he thinks the ends justify the means? It’s a conundrum.
- selivanovp 1y agoYep. This is the type of a psycho, that start all the wars. If history teaches us anything, as soon as some country gets a superior war tech, it immediately leads to them using it to destroy whoever they see as their enemies. And what really stops wars is when their main adversaries have the same power to destroy if being attacked. Mutual deterrence is what was keeping us from WW3 for several decades. But the recent and growing idea of USA that they can break from this stalemate and crush anyone with overwhelming strength is what makes WW3 closer and closer by the day.
- tastyface 1y agoThe man is a crusader and his shareholder letters sound downright apocalyptic.