A children’s treasury of things Alex Karp has said in public over the last three years.A children’s treasury of things Alex Karp has said in public over the last three years.Nov 12, 2026, 6:06 PM UTCThe future’s so bright, he’s gotta wear sunglasses.Photo by Scott Olson/Getty ImagesI had other things to do today, but Alex Karp’s pathetic attempt to pivot back to the left gave me no choice but to put them on hold.Last week’s elections were a bloodbath for the right, a problem for all the wannabe fash founders who had tied their political fortunes to a “vibe shift” that enabled a glorious 100-year Trumpenreich. That freed up a lot of assholes to say what they actually thought. Except Donald Trump’s victory was, in fact, narrow, and two years of his corrupt policies have enraged Americans.“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I grew up in a far left environment. I know more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet, and I absolutely believe Palantir— all of our products are essentially 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. government on the border, defending the Special Ops, bringing the people home,” he told Maureen Dowd.February 2025: Karp wrote in a letter to shareholders that “As Samuel Huntington has written, the rise of the West was not made possible ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion . . . but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.’”February 2025: “Palantir is ‘making America more lethal’ by analyzing troves of data for the U.S. armed forces and allies to help them anticipate enemies’ moves, locate their coordinates ‘and, on occasion, kill them.’” I am quoting the WSJ here. The WSJ is quoting an earnings call.November 2025: Palantir is ““the first company to be completely anti-woke,” Karp declared on an earnings call.November 2025: “I spend a lot of time talking to Nazis. Like, real Nazis.”November 2025: “Democrats just completely neglect males. … It’s admirable to be a … high-testosterone male. And … you have the general vibe in the Democratic Party that there’s something wrong. … I don’t find it very appealing as a dude.” Also, from the same interview, referring to his Democratic friends: “You have to grow a spine because a lot of these people actually agree with me in private.”November 2025: “Our competition is political. The woke left and the woke right wake up every day, figuring out how they can hurt Palantir. If they get into power, they’ll hurt Palantir. And by the way, it’s global. I view Democrats as my party, but if the Mamdani wing of the party takes over? If that’s my party, I’m not in it. Or the right woke wing, which is like, everything is a conspiracy, any use of technology is actually going to only be used to eviscerate and attack us?” Also, on progressivism: “Universities and elite institutions have played a corrosive role here. People are teaching pagan religion views — a new religion with sacrifices. Who’s the sacrifice? Me, I’m the sacrifice.”December 2025: In response to The New York Times’ reporting on his company (unclear which article, maybe this one?): “That article about us being a surveillance thing — is like, where it’s all implied what we do — yeah, but the problem is you lose credibility with anyone who goes on the thing and then — and that’s damaging for our democracy.” Later, in the same interview: “The one thing I would say to people in the audience — you know you, a lot of you think I’m right. And you know your spouse, your relative, your child, the person at work would be horrified if they knew it. You better speak up. Because everyone who thinks I’m a ridiculous fascist, they’re speaking up. They write about it every day. If you do not speak up, the people who are disagreeing with me or think I’m stupid — well, I disagree with myself. So, you have to speak up. And you cannot blame the far left, far right idiots when they speak up for their views. Do you speak up for your views? Where?”April 2026: That manifesto, which was previously 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 heavy price.” Also, well after Elon Musk did his little uhhh hand gesture and DOGE ran rampant across the US government: “We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative.” And maybe most notably: “Some cultures have produced vital 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 voice of American business that is being channeled through me.”Anyway, for any other tech bros who want to do a less clumsy pivot than Karp, I have a suggestion. First, go to rehab, ideally for 90 days. Then come out and apologize for whatever it was you said between, I don’t know, 2020 and now. You feel very bad about what you’ve said, but it was the cocaine (or the amphetamines, or hell, blame it on ketamine, since the average person has no idea what a ketamine high looks like) speaking. You have dried out and sobered up. It was a challenge, but it was rewarding. You are now chastened. You want to work for public accountability. You are sorry about the dumb things you said while you were high.This won’t work 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 blame the drugs if you don’t at least pretend to sober up.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Elizabeth LopattoThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Oh, Palantir is ‘progressive’ now, is it?
