Post #2430846

2026-01-02 08:40 UTC

That’s their game when they don’t have arguments that would hold in court: Generate so much defensive legalese that refuting it becomes exhausting. Make strawman arguments about claims that were never made. Create the appearance of legitimacy through social proof (those 20 likes). And do it all in spaces where the general public will never see it. Palantir wants people to believe that seven years of talks were just demos or something. Seven years is longer than some marriages! The Swiss army doesn’t casually commission a 20-page internal risk assessment because someone had a coffee chat with a Palantir sales rep who opened a laptop for a demo. Swiss health authorities don’t just write detailed evaluations with redacted conclusions because of “casual chats.” When their systematic attempts to insert themselves into Swiss infrastructure didn’t work (the Swiss, smart people, said no 9 —nine! —times) Palantir just kept going unabated.

Replies (4)

@diemkay@hachyderm.io 2026-01-02 08:40

These researchers aren’t wealthy. They stake their professional reputations on this work. If they get it wrong, their careers suffer real consequences. The Palantir rep has dozen other tech companies that would hire him tomorrow. If this job doesn’t work out, there’s always the next one. The stakes are fundamentally different. Adrienne Fichter and Marguerite Meyer did rigorous investigative journalism. They documented their sources. They filed FOIA requests. They read government reports. They interviewed officials. That’s what it looks like to speak truth to power. When Palantir published their “correction,” they didn’t back down. They pointed out *exactly* what was false about Palantir’s response. That, right there, is the difference between journalism and PR, if anyone still needed proof.

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@MadMike77@chaos.social 2026-01-02 11:13

@diemkay@hachyderm.io I'm not always proud of my Swiss government. But sometimes I am. Also the payed subscription to @republik_magazin@republik.social was a good idea.

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@Thebratdragon@mastodon.scot 2026-01-02 12:13

@diemkay@hachyderm.io because Thiel and Palantir do not understand no really does mean no.

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@luca@die-partei.social 2026-01-04 00:11

@diemkay@hachyderm.io Correction: 7 years is longer than many marriages.

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