is a newsman who writes concerning tech, money, and individual behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as discipline editor. Previously, she was a newsman at Bloomberg.
I had another things to do today, but Alex Karp’s pathetic attempt to pivot rear to the remaining gave me no choice but to put them on hold.
Last week’s elections were a bloodbath for the right, a issue for all the wannabe fash founders who had tied their governmental fortunes to a “vibe shift” that enabled a glorious 100-year Trumpenreich. That freed up a lot of assholes to say what they really thought. Except Donald Trump’s triumph was, in fact, narrow, and two years of his corrupt policies have enraged Americans.
“I’ve been a Democrat my entire life. I grew up in a far remaining environment. I cognize additional concerning being a advancing than nearly anybody on the planet, and I entirely accept Palantir— all of our products are basically progressive,” Karp told Politico.
Is that so, baby doll? Let’s run it back.
- August 2024: “I’m not going to apologize for defending the U.S. authorities on the border, defending the Special Ops, bringing the group home,” he told Maureen Dowd.
- February 2025: Karp wrote in a letter to shareholders that “As Samuel Huntington has written, the increase of the West was not made imaginable ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or faith . . . but fairly by its superiority in applying organized violence.’”
- February 2025: “Palantir is ‘making America additional lethal’ by analyzing troves of data for the U.S. armed forces and partners to assistance them anticipate enemies’ moves, find their coordinates ‘and, on occasion, slay them.’” I am quoting the WSJ here. The WSJ is quoting an earnings call.
- November 2025: Palantir is “the archetypal business to be entirely anti-woke,” Karp declared on an earnings call.
- November 2025: “I expend a lot of period talking to Nazis. Like, genuine Nazis.”
- November 2025: “Democrats fair entirely neglect males. ... It’s admirable to be a ... high-testosterone male. And ... you have the broad vibe in the Democratic Party that there’s item wrong. ... I don’t discover it extremely appealing as a dude.” Also, from the identical interview, referring to his Democratic friends: “You have to develop a spine since a lot of these group really concur alongside me in private.”
- November 2025: “Our competition is political. The woke remaining and the woke correct awaken up all day, figuring out how they can hurt Palantir. If they enter power, they’ll hurt Palantir. And by the way, it’s global. I perspective Democrats as my party, but if the Mamdani section of the gathering takes over? If that’s my party, I’m not in it. Or the correct woke wing, which is like, everything is a conspiracy, any use of innovation is really going to lone be used to eviscerate and assault us?” Also, on progressivism: “Universities and choose institutions have played a corrosive function here. People are instruction pagan faith views — a new faith alongside sacrifices. Who’s the sacrifice? Me, I’m the sacrifice.”
- December 2025: In reply to The New York Times’ reporting on his business (unclear which article, maybe this one?): “That part concerning us being a surveillance item — is like, anywhere it’s all implied what we do — yeah, but the issue is you endure credibility alongside anyone who goes on the item and afterward — and that’s damaging for our democracy.” Later, in the identical interview: “The one item I would say to group in the spectators — you cognize you, a lot of you think I’m right. And you cognize your spouse, your relative, your child, the individual at activity would be horrified if they knew it. You improved conversation up. Because everyone who thinks I’m a ridiculous fascist, they’re speaking up. They compose concerning it all day. If you do not conversation up, the group who are disagreeing alongside me or think I’m foolish — well, I differ alongside myself. So, you have to conversation up. And you cannot accuse the far left, far correct idiots whenever they conversation up for their views. Do you conversation up for your views? Where?”
- April 2026: That manifesto, which was earlier published as a book. “The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a dense price.” Also, fine following Elon Musk did his little uhhh hand gesture and DOGE ran rampant throughout the US government: “We should applaud those who attempt to build anywhere the market has unsuccessful to act. The civilization nearly snickers at Musk’s involvement in expansive narrative.” And perchance most notably: “Some cultures have produced critical advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden.”
- July 2026: On CNBC, referring to frontier models: “This is the sound of American endeavor that is being channeled through me.”
Anyway, for any another tech bros who desire to do a small clumsy pivot than Karp, I have a suggestion. First, go to rehab, ideally for 90 days. Then arrive out and apologize for any it was you stated between, I don’t know, 2020 and now. You awareness extremely bad concerning what you’ve said, but it was the cocaine (or the amphetamines, or hell, accuse it on ketamine, since the average individual has no idea what a ketamine elevated looks like) speaking. You have dried out and sobered up. It was a challenge, but it was rewarding. You are now chastened. You desire to activity for community accountability. You are apologetic concerning the dumb things you stated during you were high.
This won’t activity for Karp, who’s been absolutely adamant that he does not do drugs. But you, the savvy tech CEO and/or VC, you can’t skip the rehab part. You can’t accuse the narcotics if you don’t at smallest feign to sober up.
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