There are certain people who believe that average citizens can be held responsible for the actions of their government, to the point that they are valid military targets.

Well, if that's true then employees of the companies that build the tools for all this to happen can also be held responsible, no?

I'm actually an optimist and believe there will come a time whena whole lot of people will deny ever working for Palantir, for Clearview on this and so on.

What you, as a software engineer, help build has an impact on the world. These things couldn't exist if people didn't create and maintain them. I really hope people who work at these companies consider what they're helping to accomplish.

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Manuel_D an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> average citizens can be held responsible for the actions of their government, to the point that they are valid military targets.

What do you mean by this? If a government conscripts "average citizens" into its military then they become valid military targets, sure.

I'm not why you think this implies that developers working for Palantir or Clearview would become military targets. Palantir builds software for the military. But the people actually using that software are military personnel, not Palantir employees.

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some_random 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>There are certain people who believe that average citizens can be held responsible for the actions of their government, to the point that they are valid military targets.

Yeah we typically call those people terrorists or war criminals.

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mikkupikku 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Or heroes, if they win.

	▲	some_random 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, I will continue to call them terrorists or war criminals. You can feel free to lick their boots though.

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the_gastropod 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I never worked at a company that could broadly be considered unethical, I don't think. But it was always a bit disheartening how many little obviously unethical decisions (e.g., advertised monthly plans with a small print "annual contract" and cancellation fee) almost every other employee would just go along with implementing, no pushback whatsoever. I don't know what it is, but your average employee seemingly sees themselves as wholly separate from the work they're paid to do.

I have friends who are otherwise extremely progressive people, who I think are genuinely good people, who worked for Palantir for many years. The cognitive dissonance they must've dealt with...

	▲	throw-qqqqq 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> I don't know what it is, but your average employee seemingly sees themselves as wholly separate from the work they're paid to do. Hannah Arendt coined the term “the banality of evil”. Many people think they are just following orders without reflecting on their actions.