Decoding the Technofascist Tendency in Palantir’s Manifesto
Palentir’s CEO Alex Karp has confirmed the anti-democratic agenda of the company’s founder Peter Thiel
On 18 April, Palantir posted its summary of a book by Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, and his legal counsel, Nicholas Zamiska, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West.
Palantir’s post to its X account began casually, as though it were responding to frequently asked questions: “Because we get asked a lot.” What followed was a demonstration that the company is so confident in its position and influence that it believes it can say the unsayable without consequences.
The body of the post, a 22-point manifesto, dispensed with euphemism and presented its technofascist argument explicitly: below, translated below into layperson’s terms:
The Palantir Manifesto – Decoded
- “Silicon Valley owes a moral debt… The engineering elite…
has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the
nation” – is a direct attempt to convert the private tech
sector of unelected engineers and founders into a political class with
civic authority. Participating in defence sounds benign, but in
practice, it means US dependence on firms whose incentive is the
expansion of Palantir’s unhinged ideology.
- “We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps” –
is intended to delegitimise consumer tech and give moral status to
undemocratic “state-security” tech. For example, in the US, the DOJ
demanded that Apple and Google remove ICE-tracking apps as the
Government used Palantir to identify targets for ICE.
- “Free email is not enough… decadence… forgiven only if… growth and security…”
is pure authoritarianism, claiming legitimacy rests on output and
security performance, not on rights, accountability, or democratic
consent.
- “Soft power… requires hard power, and hard power… will be built on software” is another way of saying, “Trust us, the black-box machine creators, to kill and imprison the right people.”
- “The question is not whether AI weapons will be built”
This is the classic AI inevitability move that has become so familiar.
Palantir claims it is necessary to normalise dangerous technology
before a serious public framework exists, or we risk losing this race.
Palantir has made up to justify embedding them as decision-makers.
- “National service should be a universal duty” is
not a normal point for a defence contractor ecosystem to promote.
Private technocrats should not be opining on how society should
distribute sacrifice. It raises the question: were Palantir influential
in the policy change that, beginning on 18 December 2026, eligible men
in the US ages 18 to 26 will be automatically registered for selective
service using federal data?
- “If a US Marine asks… we should build it… the same goes for software”
Marines are not, and should not be, asking for the erosion of civil
liberties. “Support the troops” becomes a shield for the adoption of
opaque digital systems, including surveillance, targeting, analytics,
and predictive tools.
- “Public servants need not be our priests” They are
obviously not our priests. This is an attempt to leverage people’s
dissatisfaction with government, but if people think they aren’t being
served by public officials, wait until they’re part of a network state
that’s unelected and unstoppable, elected by no one. This is Palantir
complaining that laws restrict them.
- “We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life.”
They clearly don’t mean public officials. They mean, stop making fun of
Karp as he says, “I love the idea of getting a drone and having light
fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.” He
has “subjected” himself for a net worth of $14 billion. What he wants is
zero criticism of his unhinged ideas.
- “The psychologization of modern politics” is
another anti-democratic play. The claim is that politics should be run
by serious strategic actors, not by citizens bringing moral and social
needs into the public sphere.
- “Our society has grown too eager… at the demise of its enemies” is a way of saying there should be no moral scrutiny of those who wield power.
- “The atomic age is ending… a new era of deterrence built on AI is set to begin”
This is actually one of the most dangerous claims in their document,
which is a statement in itself. Nuclear deterrence, for all its horrors,
at least came with visible material constraints, specialised
stewardship, and a relatively legible doctrine. AI deterrence is vague,
software-dependent, opaque, updateable, hackable, and vulnerable. In the
hands of an unhinged group of seasteader lunatics, opposing this is the
actual moral imperative.
- “No other country… has advanced progressive values more than this one” is Palantir invoking the progressivism it mocks in order to mute structural criticism by appealing to American exceptionalism.
- “American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace” is
another American exceptionalism reading of the post-WWII order to
justify Palantir’s projection of power and domestic democratic erosion,
while ignoring that US forces have been actively involved in armed
combat 90% of the time since WWII.
- “The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone” is
similar to its point #6, wherein a private tech company feels it is
appropriate for it to opine on the rearmament logic of major powers.
- “We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed… Musk…” is
more elite defence rhetoric. It frames tech billionaires’ ambition as
having the only noble public purpose and dismisses public scepticism as
small-mindedness. The demand is for tech leadership to be admired rather
than regulated because they know what’s best for people.
- “Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime”
– should also set off alarms. A non-captured US Congress should be
worried about the return of technocracy, and should view domestic
surveillance, predictive policing, algorithm-based enforcement, mission
creep, and civil rights risk in all of this.
- “The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away…”
– a reiteration of #9. Basically, “we should be allowed to surveil,
know, and decide everything about you, but we shouldn’t be subjected to
any public scrutiny or we, the special, would be found out as
blood-transfusing, longevity-obsessed, metformin-taking weirdos we are,
and that will bum us out.”
- “Caution in public life… is corrosive… “- is just another way of saying that laws should not constrain them because they are special and know best.
- “Intolerance of religious belief… must be resisted”
– is an invitation to an alliance with religious conservatives by
portraying liberal elites and any other critics as intolerant. (Note
that Thiel was raised in an evangelical household.)
- “Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive”
– is an attempt to say something racist, but in inverted commas. It
openly rehabilitates hierarchical civilisational judgment. When a tech
company that wants to dictate domestic and international policy creates a
manifesto that divides cultures into productive and regressive, it’s
openly stating that it believes in unequal treatment, paternalism, harsh
domestic policy, aggressive foreign policy, etc., and explains
Palantir’s comfort with surveillance and policing tech.
- “Resist… hollow pluralism… inclusion into what?“
— is the manifesto’s capstone and gets us back to Thiel’s 2009
statement, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are
compatible.” Palantir is asserting that pluralism has become an obstacle
to cohesion around the ideals it is putting out here and therefore, an
obstacle to power, fully ignoring the fact that America is already
generally considered the most powerful country in the world.
The idea is that democracy is messy, so we have to hand more moral and strategic authority to the tech elite. This is Technocracy. Drunk on their own Silicon Valley Kool-Aid. “We reject you, your desires for privacy and freedom. You can’t be trusted. Just give us the reins, and we’ll make it all work the way we know it should.”
Palantir may have arrived at these ideas, at least in part, through its founder’s relationship with Elon Musk, whom Thiel knows from the PayPal merger days in 2000.
Musk’s grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, had been the head of the Canadian branch of Technocracy Inc., which shares a fundamental belief with the Palantir manifesto that traditional democratic institutions are structurally inefficient and must be replaced by a Technate of tech experts who use data-driven social engineering to manage the levers of state power.
Technocracy Inc. was declared an illegal, fascist, subversive organisation in Canada in 1940. The Canadian prime minister cited its objective as attempting to overthrow the government and the constitution of the country by force.
Haldeman was arrested and convicted for his involvement with the group and spent two months in prison.
In 1941, Haldeman founded the Total War and Defence movement, advocating for total conscription of all people aged 16 to 60, as well as all personal property and private holdings of money, to support the British war effort. See: Manifesto point number 6.
How Embedded is Palantir?
In the UK
In keeping with its Lord of the Rings theming, Palantir refers to its Soho Square London office as Grey Havens, the final departure point for Elves leaving Middle-earth.
Louis Mosley, grandson of the former British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley, has headed UK operations since 2016, and Peter Mandelson’s now-defunct lobbying firm, Global Counsel, listed Palantir as a client starting in 2018.
Palantir has had charge of the NHS’s Federated Data Platform since 2023, running data, including patient records and hospital resources from across various hospital trusts through its Foundry product.
The MoD has used all of Palantir’s known products, AIP, Foundry, Gotham, and Apollo, since a 2025 no-bid contract award. Of note, Gotham is marketed and sold as an intelligence and analytical tool capable of anticipating outcomes and identifying targets, which has been interpreted by many to indicate predictive policing in the style of the film Minority Report.
In addition to the use of Palantir’s Foundry and Gotham products, the Met is nearing the conclusion of a 3-month trial of the AIP product, which has resulted in the investigation of hundreds of officers.
The US
In the US, Palantir is deeply embedded in the DoD, CIA, FBI, NSA, ICE, and the USDA, among other agencies.
Major US cities that have used, or currently use, Palantir for crime analysis, license plate tracking, or gang database management include Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Washington DC, and New Orleans.
New York City Health + Hospitals has used Palantir to manage revenue collection, though certain contracts have faced public opposition. In Florida, Tampa General Hospital is a current partner.
Elsewhere
Palantir provides Israel with operational support to the IDF in Gaza and Lebanon.
France serves as Palantir’s main EU base, where they are embedded in national intelligence and commercial sectors with companies such as Airbus.
In Germany, various state police departments use the company for surveillance and data analysis.
Palantir’s operations in South Korea are rapidly expanding, with CEO Alex Karp describing South Korea as the most interesting and innovative commercial market outside the US.
In total, Palantir is believed to be embedded in at least 12 countries in similar capacities.
Global Organisations
Palantir has provided NATO with its Maven Smart System, acquired through a landmark no-bid contract, since 2025.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been working with Palantir since 2017, following an initial encounter at the 2015 World Economic Forum (WEF / Davos), through which it handles the data of 90 million beneficiaries.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has used the companies AI-powered software platform, MOSAIC, since 2015.
Palantir’s corporate client list also includes but is not limited to:
- In Aviation & Aerospace: United Airlines, American Airlines, Textron Aviation, and Archer Aviation.
- In Retail & Food: Walmart, Amazon, Wendy’s QSCC, General Mills, Lowe’s, and Performance Food Group.
- In Energy & Industrials: ExxonMobil, bp, Kinder Morgan, John Deere, Eaton, and Panasonic Energy North America.
- In Healthcare & Insurance: CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, Cleveland Clinic, HCA Healthcare, and Aspen Dental.
- In Finance & Consulting: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Accenture, Jacobs, L3Harris, and PwC.
The Antithesis of Democracy
Under normal circumstances, Palantir would simply sound like a defence vendor who had gotten too far out over its skis. However, in defiance of society’s better impulses, Palantir has been permitted to install its proprietary, all-seeing black boxes into an almost unfathomable number of crucial systems via a sprawling spiderweb of contracts that seat them within the deepest recesses of governance, healthcare, and supply chains.
From this perch, Palantir is telling us that it does not require the ballot to dictate policy. Karp and Thiel are no longer engaging in ideological debate, but are handing down their mandate as an expression of confidence that the Technological Republic has arrived.
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