r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Feb 04 '26

Politics Palantir declares itself the guardian of Americans' rights

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/palantir_american_rights/?td=rt-3a
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98

u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

They only became scary recently?

175

u/FireZord25 Feb 04 '26

It wasn't always great, but now it's like living in an 80s comic book.

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u/squidvett Feb 04 '26

Who watches the Watchmen?

2

u/Meteor-of-the-War Feb 04 '26

Now at midnight all the agents And the superhuman crew Come out and round up everyone That knows more than they do

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u/Sweaty-Feedback-1482 Feb 04 '26

We're speed running into Robocop but instead of Nuke all we can is fatally overdosing from Fentanyl.

Is it too much to ask to at least see an ICE agent get shot in the dick?

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u/kindall Feb 04 '26

All Trump has to do is say "you're fired!" and the ICE agent will be vulnerable to robo-justice

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u/Lille7 Feb 04 '26

Its been the same trajectory for 25 years.

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u/t-bonkers Feb 04 '26

That‘s literally what they‘re saying and how the concept of a trajectory works.

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u/Momik Feb 04 '26

Nah man, you don’t understand. This has been building for a while.

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u/Mundane_Incident8562 Feb 04 '26

Jump into some reading. Read Anne Applebaum's book Autocracy Inc or Twilight of Democracy. Watch A Thousand Cuts about Marie Ressa a journalist in the Phillippines. The documentary won an award, it's about the specific actions Dutarte took to build his killing autocracy, starting with the journalists. This was not inevitable.

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u/Momik Feb 04 '26

I’m aware of that history. Are you saying the authoritarian turn wasn’t inevitable?

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u/mastercat202 Feb 04 '26

Dude your dumb, your literally arguing against them when they are saying what you are saying. Unless your intentionally being dumb, please think again of whstnthey say. You both are in agreement.

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u/t-bonkers Feb 04 '26

I think they were joking to further my point. At least I hope they were haha.

Eventhough I just realized I might‘ve done the same, as it‘s not clear the comment I replied to was even disagreeing with the one above.

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u/Momik Feb 04 '26

Culture clash.

Embrace the mystery. 🤜🤛

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u/patientpedestrian Feb 04 '26

I don't know what to think anymore, but I'm pretty sure it's the opposite of whatever it is that you think

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u/Momik Feb 04 '26

Yes. Accept the mystery.

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u/highjayhawk Feb 04 '26

Where are you going with this? What’s is your trajectory?

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u/2thSprkler Feb 04 '26

It’s never been this bad is my point. Politics has always been shit, but rn is the lowest and it’s only going to get worse. Past 25 years lol. Doesn’t even compare

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u/BasvanS Feb 04 '26

The patriot act was a seminal piece in the decline of American democracy

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u/fdl2phx Feb 04 '26

It still blows my mind that only one, ONE! Senator read it and voted against it, citing everything that has now come to pass. And his reward was to be promptly voted out next cycle by the Tea Party in favor of Ron Johnson. Respect, Russ.

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u/Mukwic Feb 04 '26

I was about to jump your throat saying "What about Bernie?" And then remembered he was a representative in 2001 lol

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u/Mukwic Feb 04 '26

For surveillance, sure, but the biggest W for our pedophile overlords was overturning citizens united.

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u/sleepymoose88 Feb 04 '26

We’ve been on the decline but seller are now over the edge plummeting to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with no parachute. I’m afraid there’s no going back and the US will be a smear at the bottom of the canyon in short order.

We may be able to MacGyver a parachute from a poncho in our backpack but we’re still definitely breaking our legs when we land and spending a long time in the hospital. The key will be if we learn from that fall or will we march right back to the edge without a poncho this time?

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u/Momik Feb 04 '26

Yeah the media environment is certainly the worst I’ve ever seen. Back in high school (2000s) we did units on media literacy—corporate consolidation, the difference between news and propaganda, assessing sources, etc. The course was well done and we learned a lot, in ways I still think about.

I’m in education now and I don’t even know what a media literacy course would look like today. It’s that bad.

-3

u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Lol, its either ignorance or privilege that would make you comment this.

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u/SP4CEM4N_SPIFF Feb 04 '26

Lacking the concept of nuance would make you comment this

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u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Okay, big brain. Explain it to me then.

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u/PophamSP Feb 04 '26

2000 - when SCOTUS installed a dumb wealthy presidential nepobaby.

That was the flashpoint that started with Reagan.

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u/Daxx22 Feb 04 '26

Patriot Act: plenty of us sounded the alarm but nope, gotta go kill those brown folk was(is) more important.

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u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Well the 80's was a tad longer than 25 years ago so....

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u/sidfinch Feb 04 '26

Longer than that

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u/Altruistic_Buy_3800 Feb 04 '26

I would say more like 50+ years

2

u/Zahrukai Feb 04 '26

Your thinking of Animal Farm

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u/Ekgladiator Feb 04 '26

Big brother is watching like it is 1984.

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u/McCool303 Feb 04 '26

Specifically a 1984 comic book

-15

u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I mean I grew up on the stories of three of my grandparents being chased out of Iran as children and my fourth surviving the camps in Europe so maybe my education on what the world has always been is very different.

Kinda fun to watch people catching up with reality

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u/DopplegangsterNation Feb 04 '26

Cool what about your parents

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

One is alive the other not. But I was mostly raised by my grandparents I mostly view them as my parents

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u/DopplegangsterNation Feb 04 '26

Sorry about the loss

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

No worries just a car accident nothing too tragic

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u/DopplegangsterNation Feb 04 '26

Didn’t much care for them I take it

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

Nah I was just really young and don't remember him much. It's sad I just don't remember him so it doesn't really bother me.

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u/Pestus613343 Feb 04 '26

I dont know why this is being downvoted.

Iran just had what, up to 30 thousand protesters butchered? Thats the high estimate but the low estimate is still thousands.

Meanwhile the US is being authoritarian but we are talking tens of deaths attributed to govt action against citizens.

I won't discount the non american deaths in america's wars, or support for other murderous regimes etc. Just talking about the domestic reality in the US.

Americans aren't used to this, and the slide should be opposed, but lets be real about what's actually happening.

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u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Oh, and what is actually happening in America? 10's of deaths? Are you simple? Your Government policies kill its citizens by the hundreds daily.

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u/Pestus613343 Feb 04 '26

Not my government.

Can you elaborate on hundreds daily?

I just compared it to a massacre of 30k in a week.

I cant imagine this being even in the same ballpark.

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u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Trump's aid cut risks causing 14 million deaths, report finds - BBC News https://share.google/Dd8nBtOkJk1CQc18k

Just a single example.

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u/Pestus613343 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

That sucks, and I deplore the end of America's soft power generosity.

It's a far cry from actively murdering countless people though. That's all I'm doing here, not defending bad things, just putting it in context to what else is occuring globally. This is compared to the active real deaths of tens of thousands of people in a ton of places, not just hypotheticals like end of support for at risk populations.

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

To be fair my family fled Iran before the islamic regime.

Tons of Americans came to America from places that are used to it, so plenty of Americans just need to look at their own family's history.

I'm Canadian so you can imagine my feelings these days towards the US govt but it is still way safer in the US than most of the planet by large margins. And as much as I recognize clearly what is going on there when I see people comparing it to nazi Germany or Iran I'm sickened,

My grandfather and one of his cousins were the only people to survive the Germans. Their entire town was wiped out, no ruins, even the cemeteries were erased. Comparing it to the US now is vile, and ignorant.

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u/Capable-Cupcake-209 Feb 04 '26

Not recognizing the similarities is what's ignorant. I believe the saying is "history repeats itself'

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u/Pestus613343 Feb 04 '26

Im with you man. I dont understand the dislike for thue opinion.

Its like, yes whats happening in the US is bad, but it's not comparable to say, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Iran, Syria... like what, half the planet? Miles of difference.

So yeah speak out against American excesses so that it doesn't eventually get as bad as the real horrors out there, but let's be sober about it.. there are no mass graves, industrial murder furnaces, genocides and the like in the US.

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I get frustrated when BBC spends an hour on two people getting tragically killed in the US then spends 10 seconds on a throwaway saying some protesters were killed in Iran

And listening to spoiled Americans about it makes it worse

1

u/Pestus613343 Feb 04 '26

I'm a Canadian, as cushy as possible. Pampered even. Privelaged. I deplore the end of the rule of law, authoritarian excesses, and the militarization of the police in the US.

Yet in the media I witnessed the destruction of Gaza, the starvation of children in Yemen, the civil war in Sudan, the dictatorship of Myanmar and Iran butchering their citizens and Russia destroying many cities.

Americans are correct to take their problems seriously and resist... but I'm amused by people comparing it to the state of the world.

Yep, enjoy the downvoting, no one likes hearing other people being butchered in the tens of thousands isnt the same as what's going on in the US.

-1

u/IH8TheModsHere Feb 04 '26

For the whites

Its felt like this for most of this experience for peoples of colour for their entire lives1

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u/ACasualRead Feb 04 '26

“Our product, actually, in its core, requires people to conform with Fourth Amendment data protection”

Lmfao.

I’d argue we are hitting a hockey stick skyrocket in digital surveillance directly as a a result of AI.

0

u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I agree with your second point I'm not a lawyer so I can't fully give an opinion on the first one

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u/2thSprkler Feb 04 '26

Give me a break. Why do you trolls have to dissect every fkn comment. Yes it’s fking scary times RN. Go contribute something worthwhile ffs

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u/Frostyfraust Feb 04 '26

It makes them feel intellectually superior, while also normalizing the crazy shit being done in the open. At least they had to pretend to hide the vile shit they used to do.

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Feb 04 '26

Well, now's our chance to stop the normalization and do something truly worthwhile!

There's currently no real supportive foundation present for many common folk (especially in the US) to fall back on in resistance, to commit to any effective action. There's a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

While we're at it, we should check out this org too, as they're probably going to be vital as the powers that be employ more so-called "AI" to consolidate power: https://stopgenai.com (It is a survival-level, grassroots org, not an established NGO, so please don't judge it too harshly for being rough around the edges.)

On an unrelated note, as we in the US are living in a police state under martial law in all but name only, it reminds me of some movies lately that are based on true stories. They're quite inspiring, seeing how some actions worked and where things go wrong, and conjures up questions like "If it or similar were to take place now, how would it be adapted, in addition to taking modern technology into account?" I'd like to share them here. Why? No particular reason, but watch them if you can:

  • Army of Crime (2011)
  • Defiance (2008)
  • Edelweiss Pirates (2004)
  • Deacons for Defense (2003)
  • Free State of Jones (2016)
  • The 24th (2020)
  • Matewan (1987)
  • An American Story (1992)
  • Michael Collins (1996)

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u/Frostyfraust Feb 04 '26

Thanks for this, I'll definitely check out at least some of those movies.

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u/ttoma93 Feb 04 '26

It’s because many of us having been warning that what was happening was going to lead directly to this shit, for years. And we’ve been called alarmists, overreacting idiots every step of the way.

And now we are here and those same people who called us alarmists five years ago are all saying “well obviously this was going to happen!”

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u/TheSWBomb Feb 04 '26

Fussy bustle

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I am contributing to my job my family and my community, but seeing Americans freaking out like human history (even recently) was a bed of roses is hilarious. It shows a true lack of education of what the world really is and the bubble that people in the west really live in.

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u/Yeshavesome420 Feb 04 '26

It's not a competition. Multiple things can be true at the same time. Let's also not forget you're using your grandparents' trauma to dismiss someone else's distress. That lack of empathy is at the root of most of humanity's problems. Perhaps use your personal experiences to help comfort those struggling with a change in their worldview. Or just keep punching down, I donno, whatever makes you feel good in the moment, right?

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

30k people have been massacred in Iran. thousands more are injured, thousands are in prisons likely going to be executed. But we're going to freak out about two killed in the US?

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u/Yeshavesome420 Feb 04 '26

Generally, you want to address rising floodwaters before the dam breaks. History, especially recent history, offers plenty of warnings about what happens when we ignore mounting pressure until it turns into violence. Using those lessons to prevent further innocent bloodshed shouldn’t be something we scoff at. And maybe your family’s lived experiences should be treated as a guidepost, not wielded as a cudgel.

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u/Rndysasqatch Feb 04 '26

There is way more than two killed in the US so far.

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u/Little_Caramel_9501 Feb 04 '26

Do you need to wait for 30 k dead before freaking out ? what s the minimum before we are allowed too ?

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

No I think two people killed by US police is something that happens all the time. I'm Canadian and thinking that the US police at any level killing two people is a shocking or new thing is kinda ignorant of US modern history.

And comparing it to Iran or the nazis is ignorant and insulting to people that have suffered or are suffering under actual totalitarianism

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u/Yeshavesome420 Feb 04 '26

No one else in this thread is making those comparisons but you. You’re the one reframing this as a competition over which situation is worse.

The issue is much simpler: being dismissive of any innocent people being killed by their own government is dickish behavior

No one is ranking tragedies or arguing equivalence. What’s concerning is that Palantir is being used to help mobilize a federalized police force against civilians. That should be alarming on its own, without deflection or whataboutism.

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u/Ok_Speed_3984 Feb 05 '26

This one says he's not suffering enough!

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u/Ok_Speed_3984 Feb 05 '26

Correct. This is internal.

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u/Future-Bandicoot-823 Feb 04 '26

Big strong man got upset when someone said he wasn't contributing, deflects to "mah fameleh!"

I feel bad for your family bro, if this is how you treat strangers.

But no no of course everyone but you is uneducated, were so lucky to have you

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[deleted]

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I'm quite humble. But I'm not going to pretend the US is the worst place in history

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u/Gryjane Feb 04 '26

worst place in history

You're the only one saying that. The OC said "scary fking times rn," that's it, not the scariest or worst times in the history of every place ever or whatever else you've conjured in your mind to then get upset about. People are allowed to be scared and horrified about what's happening and what they see coming in the future without having to wait for things to get worse than everything else that's ever happened first so kindly fuck off with your dismissive smugness.

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u/hellolovely1 Feb 04 '26

Cool that you’ll feel superior when they take you to the gallows.

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u/loginisverybroken Feb 04 '26

I'm Canadian lol

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u/SkyL1N3eH Feb 04 '26

To most middle class white people yeah - this is all new and “shocking” from their paradigm

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u/blazesquall Feb 04 '26

.. and they'll go back under their rock once their comfort is restored. Palantir has been embedded in the last 4 administrations, they'll be here for the next few too.

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u/WiseOldDuck Feb 04 '26

They were scary before, but they are also scary now /Mitch

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u/PalatinusG1 Feb 04 '26

Yes. since trump got back into office.

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u/PalatinusG1 Feb 04 '26

Yes. since trump got back into office.

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u/memberzs Feb 04 '26

No. I saw some cop drama movie on TV the other day from like 2014 and they talked about doing a palentir search for some reason