this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2026
595 points (98.7% liked)
Technology
78785 readers
2305 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Fucking hate how these shitheads take words from Tolkien's works and bastardise them. Palantir, Anduril.
What's next, a social credit system named "Silmaril"? An organisation that harvests the organs of homeless called "Rivendell"?
Just fucking stop.
Tolkein's idyllic structure for a society, the shire, is frequently analyzed through a lens of "is this anarchism?" and it's not all that uncommon to conclude "yes"
all these fuckers read Tolkien and adopted the imagery of the villains. none of them realize that the message is that all the top level people are addicted to power. the people who actually get shit done, the hobbits, they are tempted by power because it's tempting, but ultimately value singing songs, making tea, and eating potatoes too much to want to possess the ultimate power in the universe. almost everyone who comes into contact with the one ring wants to possess it forever. Bilbo's first desire for it is to use it to help him escape a dangerous situation. Frodo is indifferent to it at first. Sam immediately hates it, feels guilt for letting Frodo carry it alone, and commits himself to destroying it.
You're not supposed to read Tolkien and implement fascism. you're supposed to read Tolkien and learn to value pacifism
I mean... Palantir showed Denethor false images of doom and despair fed by Sauron. It drove him to become a completely mad tyrant.
I think Palantir is a very apt name. They just don't realise why.
Yup. Just how Sauron was able to see via the Palantiri, the Swiss army have concluded that they can't rule out US intelligence accessing data through Palantir systems, despite reassurances.
American "reassurance" is a "trust me bro" with no backing and no consequences for them if they break it.
I think that’s a Thiel thing. Tolkein was was one of his obsessions growing up. It doesn’t surprise me that he saw a plot device intended to be a warning as a really cool idea…
After listening to some of the Behind the Bastards on Thiel's Antichrist obsession, his names for things are more understandable. Not by being sensible, by his demonstrated tendency to read things and take interpretations from them that make no sense to anyone else.
So yeah I'm sure he's got some nutso bananas reinterpretation of what a Palantir is, etc.
He seems unwell, truly.
I mean, Thiel is part of the 'basically an actual vampire irl' club, right?
Gets infusions?
Palantir should be trialed for crimes against humanity and literature
Tolkien is rolling in his grave.
Surely "Mordor" would be a better choice?