5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.

Given the last point, i think their adversaries are the whole world. It’s sounding like a call for eternal warfare.

6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.

I agree with national service, but only when defending a country rather than working for an AI megacorp. For a country which engages in war as often and as recklessly as the USA, conscription becomes a fact of life anyway (see Russia for more evidence). Also National service should be as brief as possible, and about training people rather than punishing them by holding them in a place they don’t want to be.

7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way.

Already said (and demonstrated) that they don’t fuck around with debates.

8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.

No, instead our priests are AI!

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.

Just slip ‘we’re against cancelling <3’ in there like it has anything to do with the rest of the manifesto

10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed.

“Those who look to politics to nourish their soul and sense of self… well, we prefer those who join politics for the money and power.”

“who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet”

wat? Like being satisfied with their voter approval? The countries approval? Unless i’m parsing this wrong, then this (again) totally is fascism.

11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.

Again the manifesto has already dirty-talked to me about how much it wants to crush its enemies with AI-powered warfare.

12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.

Idk, i just picture shrek’s “yeah right, like that’ll ever happen!” clip when I read this one. AI isn’t a deterrent, we know that every other country has access to AI

13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet.

This is the “please please PLEASE let us kill some people, we deserve it for playing your game for a bit!” Talkkng point that conservatives (i.e the softer right-wing on the market) will alwaya bring up to coax progressive pelple into playing ball.

“Ten sets of Black Lives Matter followed by ten sets of All Palestinians are Terrorists.”

14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war.

Not much to pick at there.

15. 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. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.

Just lol.

16. 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, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn.

17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives.

18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.

19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Word vomit salad. “America for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity.” Nothing could be less true. America tried its hardest to corrupt and ruin multiple cultures. America has the most powerful propoganda machine, hollywood.

1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation

Sure.

2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible

What? The iPhone is fucking NOTHING. What are you, a 13 year old from 6 years ten years ago? Who even thinks like this?

Also, iPhones have apps. They just have apple apps.

My brain hurts from how unprofound this is juet 2 points in. Can we get to the fascism yet?

3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public

Yeah so that’s fascist. In a very lame capitalist way, too. Nobody has ever said or believed these things before, it’s like fascist mythologising to justify extracting even more out of the workforce at the end of history.

4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

Translation: We will use warfare to crush non AI empowered societies.

You might say that they’re proposing this because it’s the only thing their AI has proven to be good at, but i’m pretty sure the AI fucked up when it decided to target primary schools in Iran over and over again. The alternative case - that Palantir staff/ the mikitary chose to target little girls, is much worse.