Palantir Critiques Inclusivity and 'Regressive' Cultures in Manifesto

Surveillance and analytics firm Palantir recently shared what it described as a "brief" 22-point summary of CEO Alexander Karp's book, "The Technological Republic."

Co-authored by Karp and Palantir's head of corporate affairs, Nicholas Zamiska, "The Technological Republic" was published last year. The authors framed it as "the beginnings of the articulation of the theory" behind Palantir's work, though one critic dismissed it as "not a book at all, but a piece of corporate sales material."

The company's ideological stance has faced increased scrutiny since then. This comes amid debates within the tech industry over Palantir's contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the company's positioning as an organization dedicated to defending "the West."

In fact, congressional Democrats recently sent a letter to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, demanding more details on how tools developed by Palantir and other surveillance companies are being used in the administration's aggressive deportation strategy.

Palantir's post does not directly address much of this context, stating simply that the summary is provided "because we get asked a lot." It suggests that "Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible" and declares that "free email is not enough."

"The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public," the company states.

The post covers broad ground, at one point criticizing a culture that "almost snickers at [Elon] Musk's interest in grand narrative," and at another touching on recent debates about military applications of artificial intelligence.

"The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose," Palantir argues. "Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed."

Similarly, the company posits that "the atomic age is ending," while "a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin."

The post also condemns the "postwar neutering of Germany and Japan," adding that the "defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price." It warns that "a similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism" could "threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia."

The post concludes by criticizing "the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism." Palantir contends that an uncritical devotion to pluralism and inclusivity "glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful."

After Palantir shared this on Saturday, Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative outlet Bellingcat, wryly observed that it was "extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement."

Higgins further argued that the post is more than a simple "defence of the West." In his view, it also attacks what he sees as key democratic pillars in need of rebuilding: verification, deliberation, and accountability.

"It's also worth being clear about who's doing the arguing," Higgins wrote. "Palantir sells operational software to defence, intelligence, immigration & police agencies. These 22 points aren't philosophy floating in space, they're the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it's advocating."