Author @gilduran.com was just banned from “free speech absolutist” twitter for criticizing the Palantir CEO’s manifesto— so here’s his upcoming book: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
Oh she definitely doesn’t! But Farrell does 🙌🏻
🤯
Alizee Delpierre has done fascinating interviews/ethnographic work re elite women and gifting relationships with their staff. Justin Farrell’s Billionaire Wilderness is also a great ethnography of Wyoming’s wealthy, including relationships with their staff.
We can’t stop individuals wanting to develop new technologies, but we don’t have to spend government money helping to speed their development, or hand political power and influence to those who intend to use them for evil purposes. (I’m talking on this topic at a workshop in Armenia next week.)
In academia (in my experience), never - references first, then offer. But clearly different contexts do this differently.
When he says “elite” he doesn’t mean multi-billionaires with yacht fleets. He means elite anthropology professors driving their Toyota Yarises to teach at small bankrupt liberal arts colleges.
![In his "most notorious [job] interview," Karp met Louis Mosley, an Oxford graduate whose grandfather Oswald Mosley was the British fascist leader during World War Il and once named "worst Briton of the twentieth century."
As soon as Mosley sat down, Karp began reciting from memory, for several minutes, one of Oswald's 1939 speeches demanding Britain seek peace with Nazi Germany. When finished, Karp executed tai chi moves and walked out without saying goodbye.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tjfcr277iebksvt55hbnueqf/bafkreiegftovtpx62wv7lipalwhas5l75osbsnw7fsxk6i2fm7lce7rera)
In his "most notorious [job] interview," Karp met Louis Mosley, an Oxford graduate whose grandfather Oswald Mosley was the British fascist leader during World War Il and once named "worst Briton of the twentieth century." As soon as Mosley sat down, Karp began reciting from memory, for several minutes, one of Oswald's 1939 speeches demanding Britain seek peace with Nazi Germany. When finished, Karp executed tai chi moves and walked out without saying goodbye.
It’s also worth reading all 22 bullet points and asking yourself “would any of these be out of place in Mussolini’s Italy?”
I’m not saying Alex Karp is a fascist. I’m just saying he’s giving voice to a business-model-with-a-political-philosophy that just so happens to fit comfortably into fascism.
Yuck.
Solidarity!!!
Can they do that?! So sorry, sincerely.
Also! I cannot figure out how this trend is compatible with democracy. How can citizens be engaged, informed, and participatory if they are unable or unwilling to critically and thoughtfully engage with new ideas/info?
Which, BTW, is why I consider AI to be antithetical to the needs of democracy.
Just a professor standing in front of BlueSky demoralized because exams my students used to get a mean of 83% on prior to 2020 are now failed in large numbers. It seems that their ability to APPLY concepts to new contexts/domains has all but disappeared.
I love these students & I am worried.
Palantir’s investor base is public, but its multi-class stock structure gives the founders total control of the company. In The Social Costs (and Benefits) of Dual-Class Stock, I argued that model has powerful consequences for society, not only shareholders:
law.ua.edu/wp-content/u...
One solution…
As opposed to the utter non-poverty 99% of people in the UK have experienced since the late 2000s, nevermind since Brexit.... Where do they find these commentators?
Wooooooow. Wow, wow, wow.
We uncovered a vast surveillance empire whose untraceable tech has been used to target people in more than 100 countries, including the US. It has operated under the radar for decades.
Until now.
Imagine your job being “be mean to strangers for clicks”. Just imagine.
Mother of God. Just no.
When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”.
Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform
some things about becoming a parent are radicalizing in ways I expected - e.g being reminded viscerally how screwed we'd all be if childcare and other care work disappeared. but other things are radicalizing in ways I didn't - like experiencing constant spontaneous solidarity in ways big and small
The richest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of stocks.
The richest 1% alone own roughly half of all stocks.
It's worth pointing out once again that the stock market is not the economy.
Which is why, when anyone--from the GOP to "populists" on the left--try to tell you that professors are "elites," it is bullshit. Even as a tenured full prof at an Ivy school, after ~30yrs in the profession, I'm outearned by some newly-minted BAs I've taught. I love my job. The devaluation is tough.
Ditto Brooke! Travel safe, speak soon.
Even elite women get a shit deal, as Rivera showed re elite law careers and Bessiere/Gollac showed re family divisions/inheritances...
My friends, as someone writing a book on the subject of elites, Mills' "power elites" today are *business* elites, even more specifically those relying on stock market and/or offshore for wealth & then exert polical influence using it.
A movie director and a professor, even at Columbia, ain't it.
"Thiel-backed" is all you need to know about this.
Tesla paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2025, despite making $5.7 billion.
This Tax Day, remember that you have paid more in taxes than a multi-billion dollar company—all thanks to corporate tax breaks from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
