Will the people you work for protect you?

"IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before—the automation of human destruction. More than 2,000 such multi-machine sets were dispatched throughout Germany, and thousands more throughout German- dominated Europe. Card sorting operations were established in every major concentration camp. People were moved from place to place, systematically worked to death, and their remains cataloged with icy automation."

- Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust

Who keeps the trains running?

It is easy to identify the figureheads of Trump-era violence. Criticize JD Vance on Instagram, and they'll revoke your visa. Peacefully protest against violent deportations and they'll murder you in the street. The people in power are untouchable.

In Ithaca, ICE agents patrol the Commons, and license plates are meticulously logged by a network of cameras. Crucial decisions are being made about American security and surveillance outside the White House, behind closed doors, obscured from the public. Did you vote for this? Do you want this?

Palantir's AI Platform info page.

The homepage of project team Cornell Data Science.

The oligarchy is attempting to convince desperate young adults—the future of this nation and world—that dedicating our lives to serving those in power is the only path to a secure, happy future. It hangs the threat of unemployment and destitution over our heads, offering student loan forgiveness to new ICE recruits and "exclusive" interview opportunities to prospective Palantir employees desperate for a stable income.

Peter Thiel and Alex Karp might be the faces of Palantir, but its violence is sustained by the pipeline fostered by universities like Cornell, and the people who choose to buy in. AI, for example, does not exist in a mythological cyberspace—it is maintained in server farms, trained by traumatic human labor, and built by the exploitation of natural resources, and it works because university graduates can turn a blind eye to the consequences of their work.

Palantir was on campus on March 2, 2026, making a last-ditch attempt to convince Cornellians that automating human destruction is worth a paycheck. The company knows that its project of surveilling and murdering human beings can only exist because of the people who work there and the universities who train us, intellectually and morally, to choose to do so.

Companies are built by people. Why is Palantir built by Cornell?

@palantirxcornell