Sunday, December 07, 2025

“Mother, Here’s Your Boy!”

However Lonsdale started this: He didn’t like the response he got. Apparently edge lords are very thin-skinned.
Derek.

I have worked my whole career to protect people.

Palantir was specifically setup to REPLACE the unaccountable and unchecked tech that existed before we arrived on the scene 22 years ago. It has audit trails like nothing else to watch the watchers. And is far more advanced - we then helped stop a huge number of attacks that wouldn’t have been stopped.

Right now our cities are dangerous thanks to bad choices, and we see a huge amount of vulnerable people being hurt and killed. Criminals released dozens of times to keep hurting people.

I believe in second chances. But with repeat violent crimes - making the right decisions to protect the innocent is our job as leaders.
It’s a representative democracy. Who chose him as a leader over government actions? The market? The shareholders of Palantir? And technology has never been the problem. How people use it , always has been. Don’t look now, Lonsdale, but you are “people.” Okay, Derek first:
What would be your preferred method of execution? Hanging? Lethal injection? Gas chamber? Electric chair? Or shooting? Maybe drawn and quartered for full effect?

Do you feel this deterrence would be greater if we all took part? Like we all press a button simultaneously for the electric chair? Or do you feel it's enough if we watch? Should we watch in person or should it be pay-per-view?
Now Lonsdale;
We have a large criminal population that is not scared enough of the consequences of felony violence.

I would bias towards only doing this for the third violent crime. At the same time we should have better incentives, and accountable cultures for rehabilitation. There’s a lot we work on fixing in criminal justice. But we can’t just keep letting people hurt others, or tolerate subcultures that assume they can get away with repeated violence.

Hanging seems appropriate; this sends the right message and would likely lead to protecting a lot of innocent lives, and making our cities safer for all, especially the most vulnerable.
The timeline is a little rocky, but that seems to be the point where Lonsdale blocked Guy. I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is chasing down Linus, when he stops and begins to reason with her. She ends his argument by knocking him to the ground. As she walks off she tells Charlie Brown: “I had to hit him quick. He was beginning to make sense.”

Lonsdale’s argument reminds me of a minor character in Cat’s Cradle. He’s also an advocate of public hangings to deter crime. A few people hanging from lampposts with signs around their neck reading “Mother’s, here’s your boy!” would do the trick, he figures.

Which makes me think of Tower Bridge in Elizabethan times, when the heads of traitors (a generously defined group) were left for daws to peck at and rot away. Or the public executions of the Reign of Terror. Or lynchings in 20th century America, that spawned a trade in turning the photographs into postcards long before you could do that on the internet. Yeah, public executions teach one thing: the power of government (or those with more power than you) over the individual. What Lonsdale is “leading” to is the abolition of due process so these executions can happen quickly, as well as publicly. Criminals forfeit their rights, in his scheme; which was pretty much the lesson taught by Elizabeth and the Reign of Terror. During the lynching crazy, blacks simply had no rights. What did we learn from all of that? That it works pretty well, as long as you have the power to decide who the criminals are. But when you don’t….

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?” 

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
May I suggest the executives at Palantir read something other than Vonnegut and Tolkien (from which they derive all the wrong lessons)? Maybe some Robert Bolt? Or Turgenev?

By the way, Palantir is perfectly comfortable with these antics. They’re using it as a recruiting tool.
 
Pretty much all you need to know.
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2 comments:

  1. jim, some guy in iowa5:38 PM

    Various thoughts, shoehorned into one comment:

    What, exactly, was the "unaccountable and unchecked tech that existed 22 years ago"? Who, exactly, is Palantir responsible to now?

    Audits: who does them, and what kind of access does the public or even governments have to the results?

    A person would have to be a fool to think these "audits" will be done by an outside entity that isn't under Palantir control. Getting any of the information made public will require very expensive lawyers, certainly not as simple as a FOIA request- not that *they* are all that easy to do. When Lonsdale isn't being bloodthirsty, he's stacking the lies on top of each other.

    Lastly, I am pretty sure the best thing that could happen for the entire world would be if HAL9000 from the movie "2001" came and raptured our tech overlords off to Mars (this could also become an interesting "Lord of the Flies" remake). I suspect, if we knew the full extent of what they thought and did behind closed doors Trump would come off like Mr Rogers by comparison.

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  2. Rmj5:58 PM

    Well put. I loved the part about how he’s a “leader,” and this is him taking responsibility for that role. I mean, I’ve never heard of this guy. Who the fuck does he think he’s leading? Is he going to lead in amending the 5th and 14th, as well as the 8th, so we don’t have to provide due process to death penalty defendants, and we can bring back public hangings? I read some of his more extensive arguments earlier; he really thinks he’s his important, and that he’s thought this through. There are staffers in Congress with more understanding of this situation subject than this clown has. His self-importance and his ignorance blind him to the fact the rest of the world isn’t even listening to him. Clearly he believes being a tech bro on Twitter is all he needs.

    Elmo thought that, and even put his money where his mouth is in a political campaign. How’d that work out for him?

    This guy isn’t even as harmful as Elmo. He’s just a puffed up ass.

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