What happens when Silicon Valley runs the state?

And what impact are Palantir—and the rest of the tech elite—having on democracy, in the US and around the world? Laleh has described Palantir as “a child of the war on terror,” and in our conversation she drew out the deep connections between America’s vast defence sector—the Pentagon’s budget is bigger than the next ten countries combined—and the rise of surveillance technologies and, increasingly, AI. Laleh argues that America could be on the verge of serious social conflict, and warns about the risk of depoliticisation among progressives if the Democrats don’t seize on the success of democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York this week.

Author: democracyforsale.substack.com

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