Palantir Terror： They Need More Power (Unironically)
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we talk about Palantir, a company that has been getting contracts from the U.S. government for a variety of AI-driven projects. We talk about why we should be worried about them, and why they should be shut down.
Transcript
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So I looked up like what's been going on with Palantir, like the new government contracts.
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I'm genuinely horrified, but it's because I cannot believe the government has not already
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Like, I love what our fans is like, are you guys worried about what Palantir is?
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In May, 2024, Palantir won a $480 million contract for the Maven smart system, which
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is an AI-powered prototype for military and intelligence applications with an expected
00:00:37.820
And in 2025, the Pentagon increased this contract ceiling by $795 million, bringing the total
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to over $1 billion, anticipating increased demand from military users for AI-driven command and
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Like, imagine how insecure you would feel if your government was doing nothing with
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And then also, a $217.8 million contract was awarded to Palantir, a subsidiary of it, to
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Palantir USG, by the Space Forces Space Systems Command.
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...safe this is than going to, like, the NSA or something, where-
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So another thing is that, like, people are freaking out about them because a lot of these
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I've seen the way people are freaking out about them.
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Palantir did a 30 million deal with ICE to provide software monitoring visas and tracking
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deportations, offering, quote, near real-time visibility into migrant movements.
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And Palantir is also in discussions with the Social Security Administration and the Internal
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Revenue Service to deploy its Foundry platform.
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And the Foundry platform of Palantir organizes and analyzes data, so it enables the merging
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And why people are freaked out about the Foundry platform is that it's, one, central to many
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of Palantir's government contracts, but it allows agencies to integrate data from various
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So you can take financial records and immigration data and health records.
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Exactly the thing that led to 9-11 was not being able to integrate into the future.
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Yeah, no, not enough interagency communication because they're so freaking-
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Because they had knowledge that this was going to happen.
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Yes, but people weren't talking with each other because they're idiots and Palantir fixes
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And so you put this all into a central system for analysis.
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And, you know, when you have this adopted by the Department of Homeland Security and Health
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and Human Services, the New York Times fears this created a master database by merging
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sensitive information like bank account numbers and student debt and medical.
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Like, it disturbs me because I guess I was, you know how I always like take the most charitable
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Like, I'm just, I assume that they're doing their best work.
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And so I assume that like, if I apply for something with the government, that they're also
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aware of all like my tax payment status, my social security status, they're aware.
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Like, there are just like 17 different Simones in the U.S.
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government and none of them are integrated data wise.
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They have no idea what the other Simones are doing.
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You know, what one Simone could be a felon who this guy doesn't know.
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And this is how you end up getting, for example, illegal immigrants voting.
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Or social security payments going to people who are like 500 years old.
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Alex Karp is like extremely dedicated to the company, to the cause.
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I think he's created a very enthusiastic community.
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Can we, like, shut down, like, Boeing, for example?
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Like, of all the organizations, I'm, like, super cool with having a little too much power.
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I mean, a point that J.D. Vance had made in an interview with a comedian recently who was like,
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well, I'm freaked out about all this, is J.D. Vance is like, listen.
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Like, every major corporation has levels of data information on you, on your purchase history,
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on your thoughts, on what you're saying in your own home, that put all of this to shame.
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Like, if you're worried about Big Brother listening to you, then maybe you shouldn't,
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like, have all these smart devices in your home.
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Maybe you shouldn't have a smartphone sitting live next to you all the time, not sitting
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But this isn't in the hand even of the U.S. government that ultimately wants the best.
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You know, China's getting all this information, I assure you.
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They know that you're a little bit irritable because of your seasonal allergies, but the
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U.S. government can't even figure out if you're dead or not.
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And I'd be really excited if I heard Palantir getting, like, a big drone contract or something
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Like, genuinely, I'm reading this and getting increasingly concerned of, like, wait, they
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Do you want me to try to split this out and make this a micro episode to see how it does?
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You can, you can just throw it out as a, like, a weekend bonus or something.
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Yeah, I just, I think people have a completely, what's the word, dysmorphic understanding of
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And they're like, oh, yeah, like, oh, just like my Alexa and it was everything, like,
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There's this new meme where you, you ask chat GPT to, like, make a picture of who they think
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And, like, everyone's really entertained by the cartoons created because they're, like,
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Like, you have no idea the level of granular understanding that Google has about you, that
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Amazon has about you, that DoorDash has about you, that your local grocery store has about
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If you have a loyalty number, or even if you're using the same credit card number, like, this
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Like, I'm genuinely concerned if the U.S. government is not integrating AI and drones
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And as, as Dan Driscoll has pointed out, the Secretary of the Army, and as J.D. Vance
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So, so, clarification, Dan Driscoll is a personal friend of ours and has been for a long time,
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Alexander Kruhl, who is a great daily, almost daily newsletter, like, shared this meme at one
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Well, no, he has a half-great, half-insane pro-Ukraine propaganda.
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Well, yeah, he went to this section for Ukraine.
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But, I mean, he was excited about this with Ukraine, because, you know, this moment where
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recently Ukraine drove in just a bunch of normal tractor, tractor-trailer trucks full
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of drones no one realized, and they took out a bunch of military assets in Russia.
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And he, he put this, like, Alexander Kruhl either created or used a meme that showed, like,
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a U.S. aircraft carrier, like, a U.K. aircraft carrier, like, all these aircraft carriers.
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We have to be able to integrate data on, like, everything from, like, banking data to your
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So many people abuse the government right now because government workers don't care,
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And we have an episode that I was going to do on that.
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Like, if at the DMV, I knew I was going to be dealing with an AI clerk versus a human
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Well, and, you know, we've, we've visited Palantir's offices.
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We even created fan art for Alex Karp one, one time.
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Every encounter I've had with Palantir and its staff has been incredibly positive.
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Like, they're, they actually, and there are lots of people in, in every government, you
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know, who are very passionate about, you know, protecting their country and doing a
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But the incentives at Palantir, I think, are better aligned to actually create good
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They are really excited when they make it possible for someone in, in the U.S.
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military, for example, to, to end a battle before it begins.
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You know, to, to extremely reduce the amount of collateral damage.
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Palantir has come under a lot of fire recently because of their, their, their use in Gaza,
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And they're like clearly okay with helping Israel.
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If the, if the hostages haven't been released, Israel has comp watch to do whatever it wants.
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And if, if, if Greta Thornberg wants to go out there and, and complain, why isn't she
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You know, that is like, you want me to like, let my daughter be continually graped by, you
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know, these people and not do anything about it.
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Just be like, oh, I guess I'm giving up on her.
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You know, like we've seen what these people do to their hostages.
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And I'd point out that we have seen what these people do to their hostages.
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People like Greta Thornberg and the other people on her selfie boat have not seen what
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they do to their hostages because when the Israeli forces offered to show her video of
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what was happening, she and the rest of the people on the boat absolutely refused to watch
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So this just shows that from my perspective, it's not like she has seen what's happening
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on one side and what's happening on the other side.
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She's just like, I don't care what's happening to Jews.
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I don't care that there are still people down in tunnels that this is happening to, that
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these are your sons and daughters, and that that is why you are continuing to fight.
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Like, this isn't like they're in some nice room or something.
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And the fact that you even would consider that you wouldn't do literally everything was in
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your power to get the hostages back, just to me, it shows, like when you consider that
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those hostages could be family members, shows a lack of humanity in an individual.
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They have a right to do whatever they feel they need to do until the hostages are released.
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And if you're like, well, but what about all the other people who are being hurt?
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And all of those other people being hurt should be doing everything in their power to get the
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Because at the end of the day, what you're asking me to do is to tell somebody who knows
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that their daughter is being treated as an S slave and could be for the rest of her life
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if you don't get her released to not do anything in their power to get her back.
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And I can't ever ask of somebody because I couldn't ask that of myself.
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If somebody came up to me and they're like, Malcolm, you've already murdered, you know,
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50,000 people just trying to get your one daughter back from the grape caves.
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And if you said, well, yes, but some of their kids are hurt as collateral damage, I'd say,
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I'm not going to stop until my daughter is out of the grape cave.
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But bringing it back to Palantir, basically every argument that people are butthurting
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about, I, I, it just really doesn't concern me at all.
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I mean, one, the executive order on data sharing.
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In March, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order mandating that federal agencies
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I didn't realize Palantir was involved with this.
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I was just stoked about it when I heard about it.
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But of course, Palantir is involved because Palantir is the tech substrate that enables the data
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But anyway, this, this is what makes people fear that there's like a master list of personal
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information with untold surveillance power, which we should have.
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And the, the foundry platform of Palantir is obviously what's going to make this happen.
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I I'm, I'm alarmed that we're not doing it already.
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Again, Palantir has worked with ice, particularly in for deportation tracking has drawn a lot of
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criticism, even from former employees and activists who argue that it could lead to mass
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13 former Palantir workers who condemned the company's role.
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So they would just be like fired for not doing their jobs.
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That, that are, that are concerned about the company's role in supporting Trump's immigration
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policies, citing violations of its founding principles, which are probably something like.
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So like one, no, like the U S has a right to enforce its laws.
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I want to see the government shut down the NSA and replace it with Palantir.
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I mean, so, but keep in mind, Malcolm, that to the, the big data centers, like a lot of what
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NSA just does is raw data collection, which is useful.
00:13:38.980
No, the NSA employees have repeatedly been shown to violate the interest of the American
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Oh, so you're just saying have Palantir do what the NSA does now.
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They, they, they have people doing like searches on like former girlfriends and stuff like that.
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They have people, you know, as I've said recently, all of this in trans propaganda and
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like a trans cult there that's been enforcing its message on everyone.
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And I've heard no story like this from Palantir employees.
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No, none of this has been, you know, the height of professionalism and, and motivated altruism.
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So then the fourth argument is the classic one of just like the, the ethical and the
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privacy fears, which, you know, you know how I feel about that.
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How much is Palantir paying you, Simone, for this, by the way?
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I actually, I think I did find a Palantir apologist on YouTube and I'm like, are you being paid
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But he just actually seemed, I think he was more of a stonk enthusiast and we can get to
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Palantir stock has surged over 70% in 2025 driven by these contracts of the Trump administration's
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So it's, it's the S and P 500 second best performer.
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I think it's going to have some stands because of that.
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And I don't think, yeah, I mean, yeah, kind of, they are being paid because, you know,
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they, their stocks have gone way up if they were earlier holders.
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It's, but it's, I mean, it's on that front, it's valuation is too high.
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It's 200 times forward earnings at its current valuation.
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It's, it's not, that's not a sustainable price.
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Like I think it's, it's way overinflated because of all this.
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With stocks is once something becomes pervasively discussed and people think it's a good asset,
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You know, like that is not when it's interesting.
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You want things that don't look interesting to anyone when you know they're undervalued
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So obviously there are people who warn that Palantir's technology could be used to build
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a police state infrastructure, especially given that it can process biometric data, social
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media activity, other personal information, and just combine it all together to create these
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Vance's argument, like I said earlier, this is already happening from companies.
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Do you want the police state to be run by China and private corporations?
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Or do you want like any degree of accountability within it, right?
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People argue that they're, they're worried about the lack of transparency potential for
00:16:13.820
Like you're, you're probably the same people who freaked out when TikTok was going to be
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This is kind of like people freaking out when we suggest a medal of motherhood, but like
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they also encourage most of the socialist policies that were, you know, popular in post-Weimar
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And then of course the final argument is that like, oh, well, they're like, they're too
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Like the political, like Trump isn't, well, what Trump derangement syndrome, like Trump
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And, and there are some former Palantirs who are working with Doge and they just, oh, this
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is so incestuous, but like, oh, I guess it's just because maybe there aren't that many
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So yeah, I just like, it's, it's insane to me that people are having these freak outs
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and people have created these long YouTube videos about how Alex Karp is a demon.
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And I'm just listening to them and I'm like, I'm so concerned about Palantir's lack of power