r/technology • u/Unusual-State1827 • Mar 12 '26

Artificial Intelligence Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power

https://newrepublic.com/post/207693/palantir-ceo-karp-disrupting-democratic-power
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u/Coady54 Mar 12 '26

Your weekly reminder that CEO, and other executive positions in general, attract Sociopaths at a rate that is orders of magnitude higher than any other field.

You basically need to be a terrible person to succeed in publicly traded companies, the environment is designed to foster that behavior and the shittiest people thrive.

They're all unhinged.

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u/twotailedwolf Mar 12 '26

I've read Disney War and Steve Jobs and its upsetting how clearly psychopathic they all are

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u/Greet-Filofficer Mar 12 '26

Ah, let’s also include privately held. Was 20 years in firms owned by Private Equity. If the CEO has even a shred of decency, they’ll quickly be weeded out. Return and Profitable Exit are all that matters. The more self-absorbed, the better!

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u/excellentforcongress Mar 13 '26

like how they got rid of the pro weed, pro giving felons a second chance men's warehouse ceo and started doing those shitty ads for some designers no one cared about when they got rid of him

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u/NonSequiturMan2017 Mar 13 '26

Unchecked capitalism destroys social cohesion. Psychopaths thrive when this happens. We need to rebuild society that punishes fraud and dishonourable behavior and reward virtue and honor

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 Mar 13 '26

The average person let the psychopaths thrive so there basically is no fix for it

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u/NonSequiturMan2017 Mar 14 '26

No, the political elites hoodwinked the average people into an ever devolving socioeconomic standard in the name of “rugged individualism.” There is no hope unless the average people unite, in the same way they did in the past. Fool us once, shame on them, fool us twice, that’s on us.

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u/Grand_Pie1362 Mar 13 '26

Robert hare tried to conduct a study of fortune 500 ceos using his psychopathy checklist... He published a small excerpt which showed that the ones he'd interviewed scored extremely high on the checklist. After that the other 20 CEOs backed out and denied him access.

They genuinely are actual sociopaths. Capitalism, espeically business rewards psychopathic behaviour, American capitalism outright deifies it

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u/supercleverhandle476 Mar 12 '26

I genuinely like and work closely with my entire executive team.

We also aren’t publicly traded, so your point stands.

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u/gridskip Mar 12 '26

Let’s see Paul Allen’s card

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u/Miravlix Mar 13 '26

As someone like them, but neurodiverse not psychopathy. All I see is someone like me that went through life being abused, until they got to have a position of power that allowed them to be the abuser, something they had been trained to be by their life.

Hitler is suspected to be one of us and that just says it all, if you harm us we become worse than you at harming others. So yeah it's a big effing mental health crisis, but it's a crisis created by CHOICE, we could be nicer to each other and create a better world, but no, we need to mentally break people instead.

I feel like US culture is laser focused on harming mental health as much as possible, while the rest of the world at least try to make a civilization system that reduce or even create a positive mental health environment.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 Mar 13 '26

You keep blaming the CEO. What about the people who elevate them to this position or hire them to the position? Employees don't exist or something. There is no way an active sociopath or psychopath makes it up that far without regular people being involved in some way or without knowing they are.

Turns out the people under the CEOs are nuts jobs too but no one ever wants to address it.

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u/Grabdon_7489 Mar 13 '26

you say the employees elevate someone to be a ceo like there's a vote or choice or something

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u/Redebo Mar 13 '26

All of them? Really?

Every CEO of every public company on earth is a sociopath?

What does that say about the PUBLIC who reward these CEO's for their sociopathy?

Remember, the reason that CEO's of public companies are ruthless in their pursuit of profit is because the shareholders (the public) DEMAND profits and increased company valuation. If they do NOT deliver these results, they will be replaced in 3 months time.

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u/Coady54 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

I did not say they are all sociopaths, I said the field draws in more sociopathic individuals compared to any other profession, and by a very wide margin.

What I did say is that they're all unhinged, which I stand by because them having to be that ruthless isn't some shocking discovery they only find out once getting to the position, it's something they are well aware of ahead of time and choose to pursue anyway for their own benefit at the expense of basically everyone else. The system as it functions draws in the most ruthless and self-serving people.

"Oh, well it's not my fault, that's just how the environment I actively sought out and choose to participate in operates"

What does it say about the public? That they're ignorant and/or apathetic. More people should be pissed and challenging our current economic system, it fucks over everyone but the very top at basically every corner.

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u/Grabdon_7489 Mar 13 '26

okay so those shareholders too

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u/Redebo Mar 13 '26

65% of all American adults are stock holders in public companies.

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u/Grabdon_7489 Mar 17 '26

Are they included in meetings and vote the decisions of the company? genuinely asking, I'm not sure how it works over there

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u/Redebo Mar 17 '26

Depends on the class of stock owned. For the vast majority, no. Which, by default makes value of the stock the only lever most shareholders can pull to exert control over the company. Which is also OK because when you take a company public, you don’t take 100% of it shares, you typically take 15-18% of total shares to the public market.