The Republic

Last week, Palantir Technologies published a 22-point manifesto on X.

Palantir Technologies, for context, builds surveillance software. Their customers include Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which uses it to track and process immigration cases), the National Security Agency (signals intelligence), and various military agencies (targeting operations). The company's 2024 revenue was $2.87 billion. They are one of the fastest-growing defense technology companies in the country.

The manifesto is a summary of a book by CEO Alex Karp called "The Technological Republic." The book argues that America must resist "the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism." Some cultures, it explains, have "produced wonders." Others are "regressive and harmful." The West must stop feeling guilty about asserting civilizational superiority. Karp published this on X, where it received thousands of retweets. (Engadget described it as reading "like the ramblings of a comic book villain." This is from their news section. I mention this only because it is a fair description.)

The company that helps governments decide which people to track, process, and remove has published an argument about which cultures are worth protecting.

This is not a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest implies that the financial position and the philosophical position are pulling in different directions. They are not pulling in different directions. They are the same position. Palantir builds the infrastructure. The manifesto explains what the infrastructure is for. One of them is the sales deck. The other one is also the sales deck.

The book costs $28.00. It is available on Amazon. The product listing does not mention the infrastructure.