Better Offline

Palantir's Manifesto with June and Caleb from KTC

67 min
Apr 29, 2026about 1 month ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Ed Zitron and guests from Kill the Computer dissect Palantir CEO Alex Karp's 22-point manifesto, analyzing his arguments for increased military spending, AI-driven defense, and tech industry civic duty. The hosts critique Karp's worldview as techno-fascist, self-serving, and contradictory, while acknowledging his sincere belief in aggressive foreign policy and national security prioritization.

Insights
  • Karp's manifesto reveals a coherent but troubling ideology rooted in Cold War liberalism and Frankfurt School philosophy, where military aggression serves as social cohesion and national identity
  • Tech billionaires are increasingly adopting public intellectual personas and culture war rhetoric to justify government contracts and maintain stock valuations amid declining consumer markets
  • Palantir's business model depends on wartime economy framing and surveillance infrastructure, making the company's public advocacy inherently self-interested despite Karp's claimed sincerity
  • The manifesto exposes how tech leaders conflate tolerance with weakness and reframe criticism as persecution, using philosophical language to obscure authoritarian preferences
  • Karp's recent ideological shift from nominal progressivism to hard-line nationalism correlates with post-October 7th campus protests and suggests opportunistic alignment with rising right-wing sentiment
Trends
Tech CEOs adopting public intellectual/statesman personas to influence policy and normalize surveillance capitalismSilicon Valley's pivot from consumer tech to defense contracting as primary growth strategy and cultural legitimacy sourceRebranding of surveillance and military AI as inevitable progress requiring public buy-in and reduced scrutinyTech industry's embrace of religious rhetoric and culture war positioning as political cover for government contractsNormalization of techno-fascist ideology through philosophical obfuscation and appeals to national securityIncreasing coordination between tech companies and military/intelligence agencies with minimal public accountabilityUse of manifestos and thought leadership content as PR strategy to shape policy narratives around AI and defenseTech billionaires' shift from apolitical branding to explicit right-wing alignment and anti-woke positioning
Companies
Palantir Technologies
Central subject; defense contractor providing data analytics and surveillance software to government agencies includi...
Oracle
Compared to Palantir as similar enterprise software company with government contracts and high pricing model
Salesforce
Referenced as comparison point; hosts describe Palantir as 'evil Salesforce' due to similar business model
Tesla
Elon Musk's company mentioned in context of tech CEO public personas and grand narrative ambitions
Twitter/X
Elon Musk's acquisition used as example of tech billionaire overreach and failed promises
Google
Mentioned for recent secretive government surveillance deal and contradiction between stated values and practices
Lockheed Martin
Traditional defense contractor compared to tech companies entering defense sector
RTX (Raytheon Technologies)
Defense contractor example of how traditional weapons manufacturers avoid public intellectualism
LinkedIn
CEO Reed Hoffman mentioned in context of tech elite and Epstein connections
People
Alex Karp
Author of 22-point manifesto analyzed throughout episode; described as sincere believer in military-industrial ideology
Ed Zitron
Podcast host leading analysis and critique of Palantir manifesto with strong skepticism
Juniper
Guest providing historical and philosophical context for Karp's ideology and Frankfurt School connections
Caleb
Guest offering cultural critique and analysis of tech billionaire rhetoric and manifesto implications
Peter Thiel
Mentioned as Karp's ideological predecessor and Trump supporter; Karp publicly disagreed with him on Trump
Jürgen Habermas
Frankfurt School theorist who rejected Karp's dissertation; foundational to Karp's intellectual framework
Elon Musk
Compared to Karp as tech billionaire adopting public intellectual persona and making unfulfilled promises
Maura Weigel
Dissected Karp's academic credentials and relationship with Habermas; revealed Habermas rejected his dissertation
Barry Weiss
Conducted interview with Karp at University of Texas where he expanded on manifesto themes
Michael Easter
Mentioned as iHeart podcast host in pre-roll advertisement
Quotes
"It's evil Salesforce is the best I can get to it. Like, it's just like they send forward deployment engineers to your business. They charge you a bazillion dollars in some time."
CalebEarly in episode
"His entire life, he's ostensibly this progressive Democrat since October 7th. Really? Yes, absolutely. He voted against Trump, and he fought with Peter Thiel about his support of Trump as recently as 2024."
JuniperMid-episode
"Peace for who? This long peace for who? Sure, in the imperial core here in the United States, in the air quotes West, of course it feels peaceful, but we just started a war in Iran."
Ed ZitronDiscussing Point 14
"He wrote his whole dissertation about how war and hate towards others is like a societal glue. It's also, I don't mean to attack people's physical ability, but am I meant to be scared of you, mate?"
Ed ZitronMid-episode
"These people need therapy. But, like, these people need friends. Yeah. Just one guy. Outside of themselves, too. because they're all friends with each other, of course."
CalebEarly-mid episode
Full Transcript
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On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this proof, I'm going to die. Listen to Sino's show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Saturday, May 2nd, country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. At our 2026 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. Call Zone Media. Hello and welcome to Better Offline. I'm your host, Ed Zitra, and I have lost the plot. Better Offline. I've lost the plot. Anyway, we're back. Download a t-shirt, log on to the newsletter, send me $4,000 in cash. That's the only way you can get onto the premium. It's cash. But today I am joined by two of the powerhouses from Kill the Computer. Of course, I've got Juniper and Caleb here. How are you doing, you two? Really great. I'm doing wonderful. Awesome. Yeah. So I was just reading what appears to be a school shooter manifesto that was posted on Palantir. Radical AI centrist. Doesn't want data centers built, but really loves talking to ChatGBT about all of his plans. But I like the first line of it the most, by the way, which is because we get asked a lot. No, you don't. Who is up? I'm constantly at Palantir. Hey, have you come up with like, oh, I don't know, 22 different points to explain who you are? Because another great thing about this is it still does not explain what Palantir is. Yeah. It's so true. It's evil Salesforce is the best I can get to it. Like, it's just like they send forward deployment engineers to your business. They charge you a bazillion dollars in some time. I mean, it's just Oracle, actually. My understanding is that it's like an app layered on top of like databases, essentially, is like what it is for different companies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just Oracle. I was going to say evil Oracle, but I think that that's Oracle. that's just oracle i mean their first client was the cia yeah yeah first client of oracle was cia we love it's very funny um back in uh peter teal did um a reddit ama like 10 years ago and he called the cia a front for palantir in that i thought was very funny come on dude i hate these people they are like they're they're stunting on all of us all the time they think they can just like do this shit and i mean i love it they love it it was like come on literally stunting in the to the extent that they're doing stuff with confidence that they shouldn't have exactly because it's like they're trading at some ridiculous earnings multiple this is exactly the kind of thing that goes away also really like the problem with government contracts is when you have them they're awesome when you have them they're great when you're like gonna guarantee money but if the government is ever just like i don't know if i want to work with the manifesto brothers over here i don't know if like like donald trump 22 points that's a lot of that's a long manifesto the 22nd with the 23rd point that he only sent to a couple people was some of you are cool don't come to school tomorrow i thought point 14 would be a little more racist though american power let's actually go through these shall we okay please number one silicon valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible the engineering elite of silicon valley is an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation so first bit i might agree with you do owe you do owe society money you you owe them a debt of gratitude and then the second part is like oh so you just care about war yeah so i think it's really uh just for context here i've been uh kind of racking my brain for the first blog that we're doing over on our kill the computer news website um i think it's really easy to interpret this as like him being cynical and be like ding ding ding holding his hat out money like like you might think elon musk if he said this you know he's just asking for more taxpayer money or something it's important to remember that like uh alex carp believes in this like very sincerely all the stuff that he's saying yes you know there's probably some cynicism too because he's obviously is you know his whole business is making money off the federal government in some ways, but he does believe all 22 points are sincere. I mean, I think specifically this point 14 too, especially like he does believe these things. Peace for who? This long peace for who? Sure, in the imperial core here in the United States, in the air quotes West, of course it feels peaceful, but we just started a war in Iran. That's not peace. That's like the common thing where it's like, oh, yeah, Israeli IDF soldiers get killed by terrorists. But Palestinians, they just – they died. Who knows what happened there? It's a bomb-involved killing. Yeah. No source on that one. You don't know where that came from. Carp is interesting in that his entire life, he's ostensibly this progressive Democrat since October 7th. Really? Yes, absolutely. He voted against Trump, and he fought with Peter Thiel about his support of Trump as recently as 2024. Seriously? Yeah. Okay. It was actually October 7th that really kind of – and then some anti-woke stuff. I still think that he does believe in some of these things. He's just kind of going into, like, I don't know, midlife crisis, divorce, dad. Like, I don't know what I believe anymore mode, sort of. Tug burnout type thing. Yeah. Yeah. He's every interview I watch with him. I feel like if I had his number, I'd be like, hey, man, call me. Doing right, man? Yeah. A little too much coffee this morning. You know what I mean? A little too much espresso. That makes your face itch. And makes you feel a little crazy. A little too much espresso, mate. Because you see a guy like this bouncing around on stage. And it's like, how miserable. How miserable. Like, being alive must really fucking suck for you. I know it's really generic to be like, these people need therapy. But, like, these people need friends. Yeah. Just one guy. Outside of themselves, too. because they're all friends with each other, of course. They all talk to each other in group chats. They don't care about each other. No one's doing a brother check-in on the single group chat. I don't think Peter Thiel is in any place to give Karp a brother check-in in any case. He's like, hey, man, I just interrupted my Antichrist conference to see how you're doing. Sorry, are you all right? Yeah, you're doing okay. You seem a little off the rails. Sorry I didn't call you back. I was just writing a 62,000 word screed about why woman must change. So, but let's continue with the manifesto. Actually, another thought with point one, it's like the moral debt, the Silicon Valley owes the country. It's only in its defense, not in making it better. Yeah. Not in making people happier, but just war. But anyway, point two. Can I just one more quick point? Please, please, please. His dissertation, I mean, this is all part and parcel of his entire worldview. He genuinely believes, so even when he was still anti-Trump, he would say stuff like, well, I believe some of his policies in the Middle East are good. His dissertation, a big part of it is the idea that aggression towards others, is like the great social glue for a nation state. Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's very strange for this supposedly progressive guy who I genuinely do believe think he does economically want better things possible when you consider where he came from and stuff intellectually. He does believe in some of this stuff, but yeah, he wrote his whole dissertation about how war and hate towards others is like a societal glue. It's also, I don't mean to attack people's physical ability, but am I meant to be scared of you, mate? I don't know It looks like his bone will snap if you just like Blow at him Also he seems sickly Alright so number two We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps Is the iPhone our greatest Creative If not crowning achievement as a civilization Fucking hell get an editor mate The object has changed our lives It may also now be limiting and constraining Our sense of the possible What? yeah i can like i think i what's great like what are you fucking talking about like yeah the iphone was a huge deal is your argument that social networking is scary and bad because kind of agree is your argument that it oh it's limiting unconstraining our sense of the possible i'm guessing this is an ai thing right sort of so he uh don't i do not recommend doing this um i recently just listened to an interview of of him at the utax with barry weiss friend of the show Oh, really good. Mind masters. Thought to the death. It was very, very fun to listen to. Two geniuses. Yeah, two geniuses last night. I'm in the middle of a minute. Einstein and Dostoevsky. That was awesome. But in that, he kind of expounds on this idea. And his thing is basically, and actually, I kind of agree with this. We have the best and brightest minds in the tech world working on, you know, apps that, where's the nearest sandwich or something. These are people that could be doing something that kind of goes back to his original point of civic duty. His interpretation of what civic duty or what could better this country is is probably different from mine and yours, but it is logically congruent. I also think that if you understand the tradition that he came up intellectually, he goes to study under Habermas, a German philosopher that's connected to the Frankfurt School. he understands these kind of like social theories and frameworks that he kind of appropriates a little bit and Habermas's whole thing was he's like the the first forum guy in history his whole point was we can only reason through the world by arguing and that's the guy who Karp wanted to have mentor his dissertation he didn't of course that's kind of a misunderstanding but that's the framework through which he's viewing everything so Habermas also would say early technology takes people's ability to argue to go to cafes and talk about and participate how society should look and work um so that critique of technology is also part of what carp is trying to say here but i'm just gonna say something that's very woke but wow is that a dude's opinion wow is that just like can you imagine a woman walking around just like arguing with people and not being killed within like one week. I don't mean this. I mean, this just like based on every conversation I've had with a woman, like it appears that like the, the world that a woman lives in and people of color as well. Like this is very white guy thing to expect. Like if you just go around arguing as a woman, you're framed as emotional and crazed. If you're a person of color, you're violent and argumentative, but a white guy, well, you're just, it's the marketplace of ideas. Fucking. He just wants to be a great man. And it's just the great man. His father was a, Habermas's father was an advisor to the Nazi party and he himself was Hitler. Now he wasn't. Alex Karp, you said studied under him. Well, try to try. He goes, it's actually very funny. Maura Weigel, who founded a logic magazine, I believe is what it's called. And she's a very brilliant writer. She kind of like dissected his, his whole career because for a lot of long time, a lot of people thought, Oh, he studied her under Habermas. He's connected to the Frankfurt School and this and that. Well, that's partly true. He did go there and he did have many conversations. But he tried to write this dissertation about aggression, a bunch of other things, too, that it's very jargony, literally. And Haberibus said explicitly to him, he faxed him a three-page takedown of one of his first drafts of this dissertation that said, you are not interesting enough to ever be taken seriously on this. You won't even be able to compete with like literary critics. And it was so bad that Habermas said, I will not mentor you for your dissertation. And that's how they had their fog out. Yes, Alex Karp. That is so funny. That's so good. Holy shit. And this definitely is a sticking point for him. He did eulogize. Habermas died recently. And he did talk about that, how the pain of that like stuck with him, of course. It stung. um but he was like i was actually grateful because it was like you know this foundational moment for me for like realizing that i would never be like an academic and i had to become a builder or something like that you know it's just i don't know i'm like i the other thing is is you hear something like that every great artist story you hear like that usually ends with them continuing that they're like yeah i believe in michael jordan didn't make the team but he did go to the Bulls or Brian Wilson got the F in music class but wrote Pet Sounds. He instead decided to make Hitler's sales force. Just a very specific period of time as well. Gino Smith said, they wrote me off, I didn't write back. Let's not think about that. That was cool for like 18 months. Yeah, let's not think about the next part there. Anyway, let's move on to point number three. 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 i was with him right up until that word security moment i hear the word security i'm like oh you don't mean social services do you no no no no no i do find this one interesting overall though because i think you're right up until that last moment but i think it's like a sort of uh admission on some level that he knows that there is like some sort of level of revolt against the like techno like techno billionaire class and that they're like you know like like we're like i think it's interesting that he is at least aware that something has to be done like a little bit more than just like oh you can talk on chat gpt or whatever but but again of course i think especially as we continue to go through this i think a through line of all of this is how military like how militaristic minded it is and like hard power and like sort of uh like i would say techno fascist or techno-feudal or whatever you want to, like whatever word you want to use for this, that you're reminded this is. Yeah, I'm not trying to like, well, actually, Eugen, a lot of people will say techno-fascism. And if you were to like, I don't know, use Umberto Eco's UR fascism framework for this, it would check boxes for sure. I would just say that like maybe the way, I think the better way to frame this is, for Alex Karp's thinking, is like a Cold War style liberal. Okay. You know what I mean? You expand on that. So yeah, go on. I think I might know what you mean, but. Because he's essentially saying the tech industry needs to become the new defense sector, and we have great enemies like China. You know what I mean? I think that there is very serious concerns. I'm not saying it's good or better. It's just, you know, when you think of, like, what fascism is and what he's arguing for, I just think that if you are interested in having a clear-out understanding of what he's saying so you can take it down better, I think that's maybe a little better of a framework is all. I mean, I think you're right. I think it's in this as well later on. He talks about explicitly how the previous era is ending, the post-atomic era is ending, and how this is like the new AI era. And of course, he wants to be on the ground floor of that. He wants to have that control on that level with him and his buddies. All right, so number four. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power. and hard power in this century will be built on software very self-serving yeah just like i you know something's not working but this other thing that i make what do you think what the that one is just like yeah we that one is built to be into that it reminds me of every college philosophy student i've ever made where they say things that are built to kind of tweak your brain and go damn that guy's smart when you actually think about them don't mean a single fucking thing what do you mean soft power because if the argument was see i'm falling into the trap here if the argument was that the quorum alone doesn't work yeah that's true yeah if you if your thing is just someone will obey the rules always yeah trump has proven that isn't the case he'll just ignore him i don't think that's what he means i think what he's saying is that saying you have guns isn't enough you need evil salesforce like that's that really doesn't feel to be and yeah i don't know i just i read this sentence i'm like this guy's fucking stupid it's like the interesting thing about this too is because most people generally don't like palantir and they never say what the company itself is if you read this and don't quite know what this is it makes it sound like they're like a weapons manufacturer like the way they're talking about like hard power this will be the hard power that we need to rule the next century and it's like i mean obviously they work with the cia they work with israel they do have these connections in these very hard power states where they are just very fine with triple tapping children's elementary schools in Iran. And they're like, I mean, ethics, I don't know about that. Like, who cares? We shouldn care about that That weak thinking That soft thinking So I think that like a part of it there too But it also like no one knows what this is Like no one knows this isn I think on a level they're sort of drinking their own Kool-Aid in a sense of just like how much of this will be like the next atomic era. I do think a lot of this is dangerous, especially with propaganda, you know, like the amount of propaganda you can do just like blast out with AI generally or some of this stuff. but I think they're, I mean, he's trying to huff he's trying to get everyone to huff his own glue at the same time together. It's funny you'd mention the AI weapons thing because the next one number five is the question is not whether AI weapons will be built, it's who will build them and for what purpose 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. So what's great about this is we do know who's building them, and Jarrell, we do know how that's going, poorly Badly enough that Andrew had to pull out of Ukraine Sorry, I mean, they were kicked out I didn't know that And also, yeah, numerous government agencies Wall Street Journal support this Also, they lose billions of dollars But that's cool, I guess It's just like It's not a question whether AI weapons Yeah, they're being built already That happened already And it's nothing to do with generative AI It's nothing to do with large language models If you had a large language model Try and control something It wouldn't move Because they can't do it It would be a fucking huge pain in the ass. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at iHeartAdvertising.com. That's iHeartAdvertising.com. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. 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Listen to Earn Your Leisure on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. but let's move on to number six national service should be a universal duty we should as a society seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and cost what are you fucking talking about we do share in the cost also also we do share in the cost we pay taxes yeah that's what taxes do i think it's even sinister though i think he's talking about the israeli idf conscription system he wants everyone i think that's what he's saying here to be involved in the military or or like auxiliary auxiliary to it in the way that israel is because like you know how it is whenever you talk about like i keep bringing up israel because i think i think a lot of this at least when i read this i'm like oh my god this this is like israeli playbook on so many different levels here especially this one where it's like everyone is involved in the war crimes so like if you talk to any person from israel most of the time they they'll be like well my family was on the idf you can't hate all of the idf you can't hate all israelis but they were all in the idf it's like that's sort of i think the buy-in that he wants the country to have this was the point i think a lot of this was really bad when i was first reading this but i got the point six and i was like okay a palantir is sort of like they should be viewed as an enemy of of modern society they they want us to go to like a wartime economy they want us to like move towards this idea that every like wartime is normal and it should be good because it benefits their bottom line i and that's the thing i've read a decent amount of people heard a decent amount of people that's saying that silicon valley is trying to jump into defense because they're running out of shit to sell yeah uh google just signed a deal with i think some part like i think there's there's there's some part of the government maybe i need to look if it's cbp or whatever but like they just signed a secretive deal and 500 people signed a petition yeah oh i saw that they were like it's like um we're not in the business of surveillance and it's like bitch what do you think this is other than google max yeah other than every google ad product yeah they're fine with that surveillance but this surveillance number seven's a classic if a u.s marine asks for a better rifle we should build it which is really funny if you know a single thing about the government's relationship with gun companies considering that i forget the but there was a specific gun built for the military that just did not work out like that's happened many times before yeah it's like but also we should try as a company sorry we should try as a country we should as a country jesus christ be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm's way sure i don't know it's like fine i mean he's still stuck in there he's like yeah it's just kind of like we'll do better we'll be just like the the military public at number eight public servants need to need not be our priests any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. All right. What do you mean? My interpretation here is, do you remember when Elon Musk bought Twitter and it was a sort of pandemonium and he was like, you guys have to work for 12 hours. You have to sleep here. If you don't do these things, we're laying you off. This is going to be hard, actual, real work. No more sitting around on bouncy balls anymore. No bouncing on those bouncy balls in the office anymore this is like this is what you do to get real chairs it's like basically what he's i think i think what he's trying to say is that's just going to be the norm that should be the norm in maybe tech companies but more broadly that that should be like the the line of thinking for people that own companies at the top this should be the like top-down approach to run a company efficiently but i i think he might also be saying that public servants are underpaid which i kind of agree with as long as you're not in Congress and have stocks, in which case you're overcompensated. I think he's sort of low-key shitting on the government as a whole here. He's doing that, and he's also targeting academia. He talks about, he has a, since, like, the, I think his, like, schism from a lot of things comes from, like, the campus protests post-October 7th. Incredible. He has since, I mean, if you listen, don't, But if you do listen to that Barry Weiss conversation, you know, he talks about, you know, this a lot to the, you know, a bunch of farm animal sounds from the crowd because they were. About how, like, you know, we can't college. He's basically his. Oh, well, you can't have like queer interpretive dance therapy classes if the government is going to pay for it. And, you know, these college professors are trying to, you know, if we're giving them public funds, we have to kind of hold them to a different standard and stuff like that, too. So I think it definitely applies to bureaucrats. But just it's important to remember that he hates he's he hates what college campuses or what I I knew he was like sort of nominally pro Israel. I mean, they've Palantir's worked with Israel for since 2014. So I knew that. But dream Zionist. I didn't realize he made such an explicit turn from, I guess it sounds like a liberal Zionism to a very hard line, sort of far right type Zionism in the last couple of years. I was not aware of that shift of his. Yeah. I support Irish Zionism from Conor O'Malley. I started, don't worry, I started doing my own Blink of Tours a couple of weeks ago. Don't worry. Okay. So moving on. Number nine. Number nine. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness, a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. Just to be clear, last year, Alex Karp suggested that analysts that disagree with Palantir should be sprayed with fentanyl-laced urine from drones. It's just the same guy It's just so hard It's so hard with cancel culture What the fuck is it with these big fucking tough guys Who go like I'm so fucking tough I'm so strong and big and tough Don't hurt my feelings Don't be mean to me Okay Have some forgiveness you piece of fucking shit You know it's really hard on us When we press the button that kills 180 school children Have you thought about us? Have you really thought about that? when you criticize us for doing that, how that makes us feel? Have you thought about the fact that I'm worth so much money and I make money constantly, the things I make money for kill people, and I go out and I say noxious, horrible things all the time, and the people that I pal around with are horrible too, and they say equally noxious, if not more noxious things, and I'm disgusting and mean and cruel in everything I do and say, I encourage people to act in the same way. Have you considered for a second that if you were not mean to me things would be better it drives me crazy how all of these people are are simultaneously tough guys but the whiniest the biggest babies of all time i saw someone online talk about like yeah wow ever since trump became elected i've noticed that like all of a sudden all of a sudden right-wingers whine a lot and it's like motherfucker they've always been like this like this is they're they're they're operating uh like this is how they operate this is what they do They whine, they whine until they get what they want. And then they whine about getting what they want. I forget what it is. I think it's Caleb Pitts, maybe. He has a great stand-up comedy thing where he's walking around. He's a bald guy. And he has I eat shit tattooed in his head. And he looks at the camera and goes, guess who just got kicked out of a cafe for being white? And you guys said being white. Yeah, I love it. It's just that every day. Yeah, I think that this one and into the next point, too, are kind of connected in that kind of Habermas sense of, like, you have to be able to like discourse. You have to be able to debate and fight on the forums with people that you disagree with. And like, if you cancel your opponents, you'll have no one left to argue with. Right. And that argument is I'm not, I'm joking a little bit, but that is like central to his like core ideological belief. Yeah. It's, it's amazing how many people like get Twitter psychosis and bring it out into like everything they do in real life. It's, it's astounding. so point number 10 as we've kind of hit it the psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they have never met will be left disappointed well i mean i give him that one but also i'm not sure he realizes the natural problem when i read when i read this i have you guys seen this new phrase that's been that's uh elon musk helped blow up in the last like year or so the suicidal empathy thing have you have you guys seen it's basically this concept where that if you care too much about other people you will always like like the way it's traditionally used is like oh you care about palestinian people uh you think that they should have rights but have you thought about white people like you're you're sacrificing white people for like thinking about like trans rights trans rights are taking so much away from like cis people it's basically the the concept of if you care so much about other people you will shrink the majority's white like rights essentially are you suggesting everyone would have equality i think not you're suggesting that the people who have too much and the people who have too little would have similar amounts of stuff whoa whoa whoa whoa it's what if i want more adjacent to like white supremacy and like the replacement theory it's like super adjacent to all that type of shit but i i just can't help but think of this it's like he you know i think caleb you're 100 right it's adjacent to number nine in in that in that same way that you were outlining before but i also think it's it's sort of this thing where it's like we can't really care about people too much we really can't care about the consequences that might hurt like i don't know gay people or whoever like that's like sort of that's that's missing the forest for the trees for them is like what they're thinking 11. Point 11 is our society has grown too eager to hasten and is often gleeful at the demise of its enemies. Exactly. All of these are tied. Of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. Well, have you talked to your customers about this? Have you, have you, have you done a little bit of customer experience work, Alex? I'm not sure your customers, would agree it's also just like very funny because this is someone who laughs at his enemies suffering he laughs he takes glee in the suffering of those he disagrees with in that um same barry weiss interview he i think the term that he used and i may be wrong but no one's going to listen to this to correct me anyway so i'll just say um he said something along the lines of like america should take pride when it uses force because we're a just nation or something oh my god jesus christ okay i feel like that word pride probably not something to come out of his mouth it's also just wild especially this year as recent as as of like three months ago and i and i think the reason for this is he doesn't view these people like as enemies even though you know the way that ice i'm talking about the way that ice uses palantir to like find uh find people to deport scans regions and and i think they use like some face scanning system in their database that ice has as well where it's like people are so gleeful whenever people get deported they're fucking over the moon they post about it the government accounts on social media post like epic aura gen z brain rot edits about about deportation so embarrassing i'm not saying i agree but i think to finish this thought they don't see that as like demise of enemies there That is not what I think they think. But go on. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, you're totally fine. I'm not saying I agree with Karp, but specifically about ICE, his point was, you know, if you are somebody who's concerned with this, you would want Palantir to succeed because then that means we only deport people who deserve it, who have done crimes. I mean, so again, I'm just saying I'm not saying I agree with what I am saying is it matters because he does believe he's high on his own supply. Yeah. No, I think you're so right. I always go back and forth. on whether these tech people truly believe the things that they say. I think Elon Musk probably on most degrees does. I think he bullshits a lot, but I think you're right. I think just in this recording, I think you've completely convinced me that Alex Karp absolutely does believe everything. There are some elements of cynicism to this, but most of this I think he does believe. And I would agree with you on Elon when he's talking about how empathy is a bug or something like that. Yeah. I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not even frankly that smart, But he has this kind of like an attachment style because of his abusive father that I think necessitates that he sort of intellectualize or abstracts concepts like empathy to such a degree that he would say, you know, I have empathy for mankind, but not on the individual. And it's a societal bug, right? Yeah. It's a weakness, a sign of weakness to have empathy. Yes, correct. Because he can't negotiate with or engage with empathy like a person who hasn't experienced abuse from a terrible father could. Right. I don't know. I don't feel like Elon believes in anything. I genuinely think that he just- I always go back and forth. I think that, oh, I think he has deep-seated racism. I truly, like, he's a sexist, absolutely. But I don't think he's sitting there and is like, could explain all sorts of deep, sincere thoughts. I think it's whatever would get him what he wanted. If there was a Democrat in power giving him everything he wanted, he would be the wokest- And he's best friend of Obama. He'd be, well, I mean, I said Democrat. Ooh, we're getting political, aren't we? Well. Very political episode. Yeah, there we go. No, and it's just, it's just, I've watched this guy for years and just, he used to be an epic bacon science guy. Yeah. He was an epic bacon science guy And he he now just like he sits online with too much Maybe like I will Yes Yes Horse idiot 52 I agree It is time for the great cleansing It's just, and even with this list, it's like Alex Karp, you run a software company, mate. You're not president. You're not even a politician. You got like, you didn't get into racism school. Like I, like what it is. Like who gives a fuck what you think you make evil sales. force like so okay number this is maybe a better question for the end but i i've i've just been thinking why and we're only halfway through but like why did they post this like it's a like they're trying to make like oh i can give you from the uh i can actually tell you so from a client perspective this is some shit that you're saying at five in the morning on a sunday or a saturday like a sunday morning you get this and the client's like i'm gonna put this up on monday i'll put this i'll put that so wait a for 18th this is posted let's see what day this was okay oh fuck yeah this is posted on a saturday he wrote this on a friday so yeah some poor pr person got a fuck it an email friday at like 7 p.m 8 p.m and he's at he's like with his wife and kids trying to eat dinner he's like i'm gonna post this tomorrow i'm gonna post this it was posted at 11 45 a.m okay so so okay so you're talking like uh was that 8 45 a.m eastern pacific anyway putting all that aside so this was just i'm gonna post this tomorrow and the guy was probably like well alex it's not got any formatting or numbers it's just a block of text we should at put it in a numbered list go well okay okay i need to post this now post it tomorrow and it was probably the thought was okay this guy on a saturday i can convince him yeah you should post it immediately on the saturday so everyone misses it except the problem is is that everyone saw it because it's the fucking hunter account but it's just no this is a this is clients gone wild this is client client has an idea that they are 100 you could not a client sends you something like this you could not talk them away from it you put a gun to their head they'll they'll say kill me i'm not supposed to vlog isn't this just a summary of the main points of alex carp's book that came out like a year ago like this is like yeah this is a summary this is a summary of of one of his books essentially all the points he had a fucking book oh yeah he did he co-wrote hard power soft belief enough about um no um it's um do you know who that guy is caleb have you ever looked into the nicholas zaminska yeah yeah he's the he's the like a legal counsel he's their lawyer oh damn he's the fucking lawyer honestly if i was if i worked at palantir and i was thinking who should co-write this i would say a lawyer i'd be like yeah yeah you should have a lawyer read every word it's just just in case especially every 14th word if you know what i mean but okay we move on number 12 the atomic age is ending once an age of deterrence the atomic age once at one age of deterrence comma the atomic age comma is ending comma and a new era of deterrence built on ai is set to begin no it is not just no yeah no it's not what are you talking about what do you mean uh chatbot because if we're talking about ai powered databases if we're talking about like databases of people pre-crime and that we have fucking compass since the 80s We have had algorithms for pre-crime since the 80s. We have had the fucking Promise software was the underlying thing. Back to all the stories, Ralph, like it's a crazy story. You should look at the Promise software. You'll go and say it. Don't do it. It'll ruin your life. It will ruin your life. I have a hobby for the rest of my day. It'll fuck you up big time. Big up to my girlfriend for telling me on that one. That one, like we have had this already. Like if we're talking about AI pre-crime surveillance, we've had this already. What are we talking about? But because AI is the new bing bong that everyone must jerk off. It's like, okay, yeah, well now it's, you know what? That's a classic client point as well. That is actually, it's like, we need to get, this is a really good point. Yeah, we should add AI at the end. What do you mean? What do you mean? AI? I'm not really sure how that, what does the AI deter? How does it deter? What's it deterring? Like, is the idea that we'll be able to generate more nudes? like but the chinese already have undetectable deep fakes of kim jong-un what are we doing like what's the point of this we'll be able to generate epic bacon memes of our adversaries despite the fact that like this um timing wise it was not that far after when you remember you guys remember this this is a really small blip on their radar but it's stuck with me was when they when rfk was like oh the department of health or whatever we're we're releasing our own like health AI bot. Do you remember that? No, I missed that. Oh my God. The first thing I did on there, I was like, I asked it, what kind of rocks are the most nutritious to eat, smiley face? And it gave me a list of rocks. What are you talking about the atomic age of AI? Come on. No, I think this, yeah, this gives the game away that they're like, actually, can we have the spotlight now, please? It's like, if we get the spotlight, we'll survive as companies. Like just keep funneling us all of this money. Keep shoveling it over Keep our stock price high Yeah, we need that This next point is the funniest No other country In the history of the world has advanced progressive Values more than this one The United States is far from perfect But it is easy to forget How much more opportunity exists In this country for those who are not Hereditary elites than in any other nation On the planet God damn dude, I guess if you're maybe talking about Russia currently, maybe like if that's the only other country in the world sure he defines progressive values in this statement as like non-hereditary elites becoming ceos that's not what most people would define as like a progressive value right definitely not it just that kind of gives away the game also just like what does he mean based on like the history of america i wouldn't say like i think it was more defined as a battle against progressive values in some cases like history of portland for example look into the portland police department i don't know look at the current police department of pretty much every city and i mean just the police department just the government actively currently trying to erase history of like like black history like lgbtq history like erasing it off of monuments and take like taking away monuments in some cases erasing school systems and like the compass system i don't think it's true like like i don't yeah it's just not necessarily true like we are we are still a lot of people love to be like wow like we like whenever pete whenever you talk about like palestine it's like oh well uh you're you're gay and you support palestine they'd throw you off roofs false first of all second of all you it was illegal you could not gay marry in this country until 10 years ago it's like yeah like what are we talking about? People were killed for being gay on the streets 30 years ago in this country. What are we talking about here? We have a police force arresting people of color arbitrarily. It's like, we are sure, I guess I'll hand it to him. We are far from perfect, but I think we're further from perfect than he's trying to convince us of. We've done progressive things, but we also seem to be trying to undo those. Anyway, don't worry, we've got another really smart port coming up. I'm I'm I'm I'm help your business? Think iHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-iHeart to get started. That's 844-844-iHeart. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%, that's T-W-O-percent, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what y'all say. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor IV. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, Ernest, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, we translate complex financial topics into real conversations everyone can understand. Because the truth is, most people were never taught how money really works. But once you understand a system, you can start to build within it. That means ownership, smarter investing, and creating opportunities not just for yourself, but for the next generation. If you want to learn how to build wealth, understand the markets, and think like an owner, Earn Your Leisure is the podcast for you. Listen to Earn Your Leisure on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Number 14. American power has made possible in an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps taken for granted. Nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. What the fuck you... Peace for who? Peace for who? Peace for who? Peace for generations. Billions of people and their children and their grandchildren have never known a world war. Literally. Those are the only wars that have happened in the last hundred years. There's like a, there's a trillion of them. We've since, we've started the United States alone have started what? Like 10, 12, 13 wars since World War II. We've killed so many people. Read the Jakarta method. That's all I have to say. A million people. Like a minimum, a million people in Jakarta. Like the amount of terror we have reigned on the world It's like sure it's not war for us It's not war on our territory It's not war on our ground But it is war It is devastation It is terrorism across the globe So it's perpetual There's been war everywhere Yeah If you're a fucking ignorant monster If you want to pretend that like America has been in a war the whole time Yeah Anyway here's another great point There's also different countries also doing wars Like I don't know Like there is not long peace it don't matter none you know what's the little oh it's over there and anyway number 15 post what the post-war neutering of germany and japan must be undone the defanging of germany was an overcorrection for which europe is now paying a heavy price a similar and highly theatrical commitment to japanese pacifism will if maintained also threatened to shift the balance of power in Asia. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I'm serious. I like this idea that if Japan could have a military, their problems, everything that's going wrong in Japan right now would be fine. I think it's a counterbalance to China is what he's getting at. I do agree with that, but I just don't understand what a military of the size of Japan could do to at this point, especially, even just giving him, let's say today they could build up military. What are they going to, how is that going to change the current situation? I think it's just like, the word overcorrection, too, I think is very telling. It's like, okay, you don't really have, it's interesting that he came from a, yeah, Germany. I think it's interesting that you have laid out that he's sort of come from a more left-leaning sort of history because this is not something I would imagine someone, and again, he changed more recently, but like Germany and Japan, especially, it's like, I feel like everyone knows why they cannot have military. Yeah, what happened? Why did that happen, Alex? Yeah, what happened in the 40s? I can't speak to Japan, despite, you know, the obvious kind of surface level, that's a counterbalance to China thing. In his, you know, his history, and I don't know if the book, I haven't finished the book yet i'm still reading it but um in his life he did go to germany in i think he moved for for school in the the 80s um or early 90s when he was studying there um and a lot of his his politics and his the things that he believed in are a sort of direct confrontation of like post-war germany and the things that he saw in that society it's very interesting and just i think that he saw he he really and this is a harbemus thing too of like what kind of national identity should Germans have in the wake of this existential death of humanity. That informs Karp thinking quite a bit. And when you think about his whole idea is like aggression is social cohesion. It starts to make sense when he says, well, maybe Germany should be allowed to have a military. It's kind of, to be clear, I don't, he's not a Nazi, he's Jewish, but it's still very kind of fucking crazy to think about this. especially when you think about how openly he engages with fascist and Nazi ideals, you know, again, from the point of argument as a reasoning tool, but still it's like, I mean, I think we're going to get up to a point fairly soon, sort of related to this in that way. But like, I think it's interesting that a lot of tech people in the United States in like the last couple of years have started doing this thing where it's like, we unapologetically do this. we unapologetically believe this like they're they're like there's like this shame like the where this they like you cannot have shame for anything you ever do you cannot be introspective like mark and reason he was talking about like oh you know yeah it's like it's so it's it's it's a weakness to have introspection i think that's sort of linked to that in that way where it's like we can't apologize for our like actions or whatever you know yeah it's i don't isn't that a roger stone thing as well like never apologize probably yeah oh my god yeah no absolutely it is yeah it probably came from him to be honest yeah they don't have ideas but let's go on to one of the other ones they claim to have number 16 we should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act the culture almost snickers at musk's interest in grand narrative as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn that would suggest he's created something now and i'm not an expert in this uh field maybe this is a question for you but wasn't elon musk forced to purchase twitter because he made an epic meme because he made he was epic and based and said i will buy this and then when he tried to pull out they were like no you agreed to buy this fucking website shit give us the money interest you moron dr carp excuse me also let's talk about some of the things that elon musk has talked about robots doesn't exist robo taxis doesn't exist uh tesla roadster with rockets on it doesn't exist just like the reason people snicker and jeer at elon musk is he says something will happen and then it doesn't and then And he's like, well, it's delayed until the year of the base tiger. He's just like, and everyone just goes, okay, well, if we had a functioning business in tech media, they would stop printing what he says. My God. But they would just go like, oh yeah, this guy is lying. But it's funny because this only ever comes from incurious dullards. It's never people who create a lot of stuff who are like, hey, Elon Musk's fucking trying, okay? he's trying to create something where you sit here from the peanut gallery it's never like artists or writers who have like written meaningful shit or like authors it's always guys like this executives of software companies who could be replaced with anyone like let's be honest like what makes alex carp uniquely the person to run palantir there's probably 18 different lockheed martin gargoyles or fucking former hanwar executives who could be slotted in and we would never know the difference other than the fact that we wouldn't have to fucking hear from them all the time. Because you notice we don't hear from fucking Lockheed Martin CEO. We don't hear from the CEO of RTX, nay Raytheon. We don't hear from these people. We don't know who they are because they don't go. Raytheon is not sitting around being like, what's that? Well, they actually have a social strategy. It's very funny and they love to post like LGBTQ awareness, which is really fucking crazy. I love when they're like, we're the greatest company for gay people out there. We're rated number one. And it's like, all right. But nevertheless, like you don't have RTX's CEO going around being like, and here's what I think about social justice. They're like, we make bombs. We make bombs and the software behind bombs. If you need to kill someone, call RTX. We will blow them up big time. What's it going to cost? More than you think and more than we say. It's been really interesting. Palantir, especially in the last year, sort of make this bigger presence of themselves with this manifesto and Alex Garp going on these speaking tours. and I believe it was a New York Times page ad where it was a couple of weeks ago that was like Palantir supports Israel They purposefully like putting themselves in the limelight and getting all of like all of this attention and, and just hate. It's sad. It's attention. It's the attention economy. Yeah. It's interesting too, because he's been the CEO, I think for 18 years and nobody had ever heard of him until recently. He's actually been quietly. I would say smartly just building relationships. relationships with various governments and alphabet agencies around the world and such, and kind of kept to himself. And I've often thought that his proximity and relationship to academia has been able to sort of ingratiate himself with these types of people that are in these positions. And that's how he's been so successful. I don't know what it is. I'm still kind of trying to- I can explain. He saw all the attention that Elon Musk got and that Peter Taylor Scott by saying like yeah the Antichrist right or like what if we ban woman like whatever they're saying and he was like yeah cool I want to do this like I want to be popular too and also now's the time because all these people want to be statesmen SPF, Zambank, Mr. Bankman Freed he was kind of early in that he wanted to be a statesman he wanted to be seen as like an elder statesman and you kind of seen it with Elon except I say this with no respect to government officials he lacks the decorum he He lacks the grace. He doesn't function or talk like a politician, and he doesn't know how to do it. They don't know how to dress as well. This is such a really small thing, but go and find the picture from the dinner with Trump and look at Elon Musk's shoes. And look at the break on their- I mean, he wore a shirt backwards when he was doing his little X joke or whatever. Remember that? But it's just like, go and look at their shoes. Look, I'm not even being the menswear guy here. Look at the break on their pants. It's really uneven. This is something that you can solve when you have a billion dollars you go to savile row in london and you go here is my credit card don't worry about whatever you put on it just give me the perfect looking suit and they'll fucking do it you will find yeah anyone you can find them in new york find them any city everywhere you have enough money you could probably just have them fly like they could do one in a day they could buy the factory you could do it but they just don't really give a fuck what they want to do is skip all the hard part of you know learning and being a person and growing so they could just be famous and they've realized that that works you can just go blah blah racism blah blah pax americana manifest destiny i've learned these terms yesterday from wikipedia and i forgot what they mean blah and it's they will do that as enough times the problem is the reason they seem so frantic and tired is because there's nothing behind it they don't give a shit about this we're even on this fucking list um oh here we go here we go point 17 silicon valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, banning any serious efforts to address the problem, or take on any risk with the constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. Surveillance state, yay! Yay! And also, also, um, this is a person that does not believe that social services are part of that. The violent crime in San Francisco comes from Ronald Reagan emptying the fucking homeless people, people that became homeless, I should say, from mental asylums that he closed. Watch Deadly Class, great show. Have you ever watched The Southland Tales? Oh yes, of course. Do you remember throughout the movie there just will be points where just different things will pop off and it'll cut two military people on roofs with the machine guns and they'll just shoot people from the roofs. that's like what he wants he wants the machine guns on the roof with just like soldiers always watching that's like that's what this point is is Southland Tales that movie Sarah Michelle Gellar is in it as a porn star and the one thing I remember is she has is in a movie called Cock Chuggers 2 Cock Chuggin to be clear Sarah Michelle Gellar amazing actress but just like fucking hilarious everyone should watch Southland Tales by the way it is a insane movie. Panned at the time but I think especially these days it is very prescient I think very you'll be like, goddamn, people didn't like this back in the day. It's a very camp. Oh no, I can get why people didn't like it. It is insane. It is insane. Scene between scene, you're like what is happening? Anyway, if only his worldview was that coherent. Because what he believes is that he wants to put the homeless people in the embrace of God. He wants to shoot them. He wants to jail them, which I'm sure will solve the prison population issue we have. wonder how he feels about prisons by the way i don't know he probably loves them i'm guessing because the solution is always more software more jail more gun it's never like more home because that's a really good way of dealing with homeless people you give them a path out of transients because they have mental health issues caused by the fact they don't have a place to sleep or a place to go to the bathroom other than their trousers and these people are suffering and they're hurting and the way that people deal with them is to hurt them more versus yeah and oh it costs a lot of money yeah it does to pull someone out of hell and if you are someone listening to this by the way who has a view of homeless people it's like oh they need to be moved away you're a fucking arsehole and a loser and a coward homeless people are victims of society they are society owes them a debt not the other way around and the idea that someone needs to work enough for social services is a joke anyway that's my little sandbox there really pisses me off oh sorry yeah go on have them. It's hard to say what he believes in since his sort of schism, but I do think it's worth noting that he has talked about social services and these programs pretty extensively in the past. He just thinks that Palantir specifically will make them better for whatever that's right. Of course they will. Yeah. I think that he does believe, because again, he has over the years described himself as various times, you know, a social something, Democrat, liberal, this neo-marxist whatever um he does believe in these things i just think that he's um sort of this eccentric uh megalomaniacal freak that's i alone can improve these problems like forrest balkan of ninth gate i alone i'm worthy but let's move on we'll fix this all right well let's go to point 18 which is a real banger 18 the ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service the public arena and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within and that is exactly how that's written he just got let that typo go right through if there were any genuine belief structure look i don't know i i this is about a mate of his but this is like yeah this is uh don't look at the epstein files yeah like this is a way to say to not do that yeah don't look at the epstein files don't look at whether reed hoffman ceo of linkedin endorsed jeffrey epstein which he did um we don't know what for i've asked i haven't got a comment back but anyway let's move on i just want to say really quick oh please please really quick just that like it's so funny to say this but also be like virulently uh anti-zoran mamdani he's like zoran mamdani none of this none of the things you want will ever work he's bad he's evil he's bad so it's like he already like within just like one second of looking at some of his new opinions even like a couple of days later or like a couple of months after this or before this sorry Are you suggesting a conservative leader is a hypocrite? Yeah. Hypocrite much? Hypocrite much? It just drives me crazy how all of this, none of these people, I think he does believe this stuff, but he's just so, he is not self-aware in any capacity to where it's like, he says things that can directly contradict some of this manifesto. Well, 19, the caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. so that's just about racism that's just about saying the arse that's like it's like this he's going to frame this as oh it's a philosophical debate but it's like no it's um it's not it's actually it's actually just someone said the arse and he wants to protect them but we've got to keep we've let this one go a little long so we're going to move on a little faster because number 20 is a real banger the pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted the elite's tolerant intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that it's a political project, that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. I would say that there are definitely ways in which religion is pushed out. I don't think those are the ones he's talking about, though. I've found it so fascinating in the last two-ish years how a lot of these Silicon Valley tech people have really, whether they are actually really embrace it or not have like outwardly embraced religion as this new thing that everyone needs to like you're you're like a deeper person for for re-embracing religion you know like peter teal all of these people i like i i think it's one of the most fascinating new narratives to come out of silicon valley is how they're all christian all of a sudden and all really love god and all really think that that's more valuable than like anything else while they talk about We need more bombs to kill people. They've seen the value of appealing to people who already have like proclivity to dogma baked in, right? Absolutely. It's super beneficial for them. I mean, Russell Brand, sexual assault, you pick up a Bible, everyone, you get all sorts of money. The Pierce Foreman thing was so funny, by the way. Oh, my God. Just flipping through the Bible. Two minutes. Oh, my God. It's like, I think it's this one. I can't find it. It's so sad. find the fuck on. And Pierce Morgan is like gym facing. Like, it's just, and I watched the whole thing and all I could think of was no American would have the balls to do this. No American journalist, I don't love Pierce Morgan, but like, no American journalist would ever have the balls to just sit there in complete silence for two minutes as Russell Brand went, is it Isaiah? Is it Isaiah? Is it Isaiah? is this the one with the wall in it is this the one with the angels that have sex with each other i haven't really i use grok to read this to me and it's just it's like no anyone who suddenly becomes religious is extremely suspicious never trust anyone in fact i know some very spiritual deeply religious people people with great faith and the way they talk about it is just completely different to anyone else he talks about but it's never it's it's something for them not for you and The moment it becomes something outward is when I get very fucking suspicious. Absolutely. All right. I don't know if any of you guys know this. You know, you guys both know I go to church every Sunday, right? That's cool. Do you really? Yeah. Yeah. What kind of church? I didn't know that. Shit. I have been going to a universalist Unitarian church. So it's like fake church. But yeah. There's nothing fake about it. It's what your faith is. No, I am like agnostic and I have some spiritual. I think my writing is quite spiritual, the process, but it's like nothing with a God or anything. I think people are dismissive of religion in some ways, but this is referring to school protests. This is just college campus protest. This is what he's talking about. All right. We've only got two more of these fucking things. All right. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances. Others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. yes this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures have produced wonders others have proven middling and worse regressive and harmful my what are you fucking talk my god i assume he means islam like i just i assume he's referring like it's just like yeah it's like those those brown countries you go a little south the the darker than brown the black countries that there is there really any wonders there there's no wonders there yeah my challenge to anybody listening to this is if anybody ever says this to you and i've seen this framing come up quite a bit more and more increasingly if somebody says this to you ask them what they mean yeah and smile smile on their faces what do you mean by that and make them fucking say it yeah i mean it's so obviously like rooted in that like oh the west western values it's yeah all right final one 22 we must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and horror pluralism we in america and more broadly in the west have for the past century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity but inclusion into what we need more racism racism we need transphobia we need homophobia we need more bigotry that's the only way we'll be multicultural yeah yeah no this yet again is sort of like cancel culture bullshit this is like suicidal empathy because like oh what like if we're tolerant of everyone like what like we lose so much the society that'll lead to societal decline if we're tolerant of everyone destruction what if someone's intolerant of me being intolerant yeah fucking assholes well i will say and this ends by saying it's an excerpt from the book so couldn't probably should have known that before going into it myself i will say that if i was made to read this book i would i would try and poison myself i i don't i don't want to know what these people think but i think that this kind of this kind of proves that this is a series of incongruent points written by somebody that can't choose whether they want to be a convenient or inconvenient fascist like they don't want like they aren't really sure what they believe in other than the fact that someone they like is being oppressed but but the people they don't like aren't being impressed enough. It's also like, give us more contracts, give us more money. We want a full wartime economy focused on giving AI companies more money. It's like both of those things. It's sort of this techno-fascist, sort of like, give us money, please. Also, we agree with you on culture war, so please give us more money for that. Yeah. Well, now that we've gone through that horrible series of points, I want to thank you both for joining. Where can we find you? You can find us at, we do a show called Kill the Computer. You can find us at killthecomputer.com or just anywhere. Amazing website. Yeah. Bea, our community, the person that sort of helps with our community also made the website. She's amazing. She built, I think, I'm biased, it's a website for our show. But I think it's one of the most, if you love what the internet used to be, what it could be, obviously it's a website for a podcast. but I think it just has the spirit of what the internet still could be. It's got games on it. Our phone has games on it. It's so sick. There's a leaderboard. Yeah, it's fun. It's fucking dope. Kill the computer rocks. Yeah, it's a show about just like how internet and culture and politics sort of intertwine and sort of manifest in the world that we live in, essentially. So we talk about a lot of stuff like we talked about today. We talk about one of my favorite episodes that we did a little bit ago was talking about the death capitalist economy of... Oh, grief tech? Grief tech, yeah. Where it's like these tech companies, how they sort of prey on people grieving family members dying or getting to end of life and providing these different services that will sort of create fake memories in some cases. They made a chatbot out of your dead grandmother and they're going to update the model and she'll start hallucinating and you can't afford it and blah, blah, blah. It's just very, yeah. It's very, yeah. No, we talk about all sorts of stuff like that. So please check us out. Thanks for listening, everyone. There'll be a monologue on Friday. You'll love it. I promise. I haven't decided what it is yet. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. I'm goddamn Ed Zitron. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song is Matt Ossowski. You can check out more of his music and audio projects at matasowski.com. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-W-S-K-I.com. You can email me at ez at betteroffline.com or visit betteroffline.com to find more podcast links and, of course, my newsletter. I also really recommend you go to chat.wheresyoured.at to visit the Discord and go to r slash betteroffline to check out our Reddit. Thank you so much for listening. Better Offline is a production of Cool Zone Media For more from Cool Zone Media visit our website, coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 2%. 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