Karp and Thiel's Illiberal Tech Vision Under Scrutiny

Hirsch Chitkara's essay 'Our Straussian Techocracy' critiques the philosophical underpinnings of Silicon Valley's New Right, focusing on Palantir CEO Alex Karp and co-founder Peter Thiel. Chitkara compares Karp's 2025 book 'The Technological Republic' (co-authored with Nicholas Zamiska) to Thiel's 2004 essay 'The Straussian Moment.' He argues that both texts promote a techno-authoritarian vision that abandons liberal ideals under the guise of pragmatism. Karp and Zamiska call for Silicon Valley to embrace government work and military technology, blaming 1960s-70s social movements for severing ties between tech and the state. They champion Palantir as uniquely moral, despite its critics, and advocate for technologies like facial recognition and autonomous weapons. Thiel's essay, written a year after Palantir's 2003 founding, posits that the Enlightenment's rational compromise failed after 9/11, and that the West must betray its ideals to survive. Chitkara notes Thiel's use of Straussian esoteric writing, possibly concealing a pro-authoritarian message. He concludes that the tech oligarchs' self-serving ideologies, while hypocritical, are not entirely in bad faith, making them more troubling. The essay was published on May 4, 2026, at libertiesjournal.com.