DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Will Palantir’s invisible eyes lead to ultimate dystopian surveillance?

Can you see through the cracks of the constant propaganda being hurled at Americans these days?

Left or right, red, or blue – overall, the business of propaganda is to get someone to believe something, do something or buy something.

It was explained to me recently that many people don’t see the situations happening in our world – and my words therefore are ignored.

In a big way that is – because of the smaller situations happening in the world that have most people constantly in a state of “what next.”

A bit like that saying, “Create a crisis and offer a solution.”

One of the latest solutions being offered to the American people is a company called Palantir.

For those who have never heard of Palantir, the company’s “stated” purpose is to help major institutions solve complex problems by providing software platforms for data integration and analysis.

Jokes on everyone who believes that definition because the real mission seems to be much more controversial; think Palantir’s sensitive nature of work with government and defense agencies and what that means on a grander scale.

A recent Palantir contract with the US Army was a $10 billion software and data contract (www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/palantir-lands-10-billion-army-software-and-data-contract.html).

You do know where that money comes from, right?

Do you have any idea where it is going?

Wired Magazine wrote an article – “What Does Palantir Actually Do?”

“Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it is none of these – but even former employees struggle to explain it,” the article states.

The Palantir summation (www.wired.com/story/palantir-what-the-company-does):  “Palantir is arguably one of the most notorious corporations in contemporary America. Palantir has been so infamous for so long that, for some people, its name has become a cultural shorthand for dystopian surveillance.”

Short version: Palantir sells tools to its customers like giant corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies who use that tool to sort through data.

Lots of data. And that would be YOUR data too.

All of it.

Your digital identity.

You can see a list of Palantir’s contracts at www.appsruntheworld.com/customers-database/products/view/palantir-platform.

My take is nothing is evil until it’s in the hands of those who want to make it evil.

I mean after all, think CIA programs that have been exposed; Project MKUltra, Phoenix Program, Operation CHAOS, Operation Condor, Operation Peter Pan – you get the point.

So, what can go wrong here with billions of dollars invested and a machine that is directed to harvest digital footprints?

How much of your data does anyone really need?

And more to the point, how much data are you willing to give away?

I have these silly friends who think digital ID and the government having your information is “not real,” “not going to happen in my lifetime,” “they are going to get it anyway,” and my favorite – “I don’t care, let them come I’m not doing anything wrong.”

First, not understanding or caring about the thin line being walked these days regarding your autonomy means you have already begun to lose it.

Another problem is the fact people who are intelligent enough to see the long-term calamity when this data is eventually harvested improperly, i.e., your entire digital footprint being tracked, are also the same people smart enough not to allow their footprint to be tracked.

And before the blue readers start an outcry that this is another Trump issue, I wanted to point out the Biden administration had contracts with Palantir too. The deadliest one related to the COVID-19 vaccine distribution when Palantir worked alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Guardian looks at Palantir’s AI from a civil rights standpoint (www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/24/palantir-artificial-intelligence-civil-rights) and reminds, “The invisible nature of these surveillance structures – and how they influence our lives – is part of the reason the public understanding of what these tools do is so murky.”

The writer of The Guardian article, a past Palantir employee, discusses the ethics of the Palantir plan.

“With names like Investigative Case Management (ICM) and ImmigrationOS, the big data platforms Palantir provides for the Department of Homeland Security, and like those it offers the IDF, are fundamentally composed of four shared elements: the underlying data integrated into the system, the interpretation and modeling of that data through analytics, and the execution of automated actions – with or without human involvement. At every layer of this architecture, there are significant ethical questions regarding civil rights, data collection, data quality, bias, discrimination, accuracy, automation and, most importantly, accountability.”

Palantir was cofounded by libertarian tech billionaire Peter Thiel who touts the company’s ability to help with humanitarian aid, public health, scientific, medical research and fighting crime.

Again, good on paper, so was Communism. However, the controversy really stems from the “helping people” overstep.

The idea of help is overshadowed by the ethical implications of Palantir’s technology for over surveillance, over policing, and over military use.

The philosophical divide seems to be techno-utopianism versus data ethics and civil liberties.

Thiel was asked by a reporter about his AI, military technologies, and surveillance talking points. Palantir’s trajectory and Thiel’s ideology when he starts his antichrist conversations seem worlds apart.

We know it’s surveillance, but Thiel deflects the answer when asked about the antichrist rabbit hole, which would mean less peace and more Palantir technology imposing order on the world. It was even joked that Palantir’s AI technology on steroids would no doubt be one of the antichrist’s favorite tools.

Deep Newz (deepnewz.com/policy/peter-thiel-discusses-antichrist-ai-militarization-transhumanism-human-survival-a0984ade) sums up an interview Thiel had with journalist Ross Douthat regarding artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and the concept of the Antichrist.

Thiel has, indeed, warned “about the potential rise of an authoritarian figure, referred to as the antichrist, possibly enabled by technological advancements including militarized AI and pervasive surveillance systems.”

Despite his own warnings, Palantir’s ongoing development “of extensive surveillance databases on American citizens and its involvement in military technology” is alarming making Thiel’s words hollow.

Freedom gets lost when no one is paying attention.

Remember, if you don’t like the rules, you don’t have to play the game.

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.