I’m afraid Germany hasn’t learned anything from him: In the state where I live, the state government unfortunately decided late last year to implement Palantir, even going so far as to amend the police law specifically to retroactively lend at least the appearance of legality to a contract for the purchase of the U.S. mass surveillance software “Gotham” that had already been concluded unlawfully.

There was significant public resistance, but it was simply ignored.

It may still be possible to prevent this through a lawsuit filed with the Constitutional Court, as the use of such applications for groundless mass surveillance is unconstitutional in Germany due to the right to informational self-determination - and I also find it hard to believe that such a thing is compatible with EU law.

I think our politicians must have been bribed. I can’t explain it any other way, because even just from security standpoint, it goes without saying that it’s insane to pass even the most sensitive data directly to the fascist regime in the US - thanks to Snowden, we all know that there’s almost certainly a backdoor.

Historically capital captured democrats supported these types of initiatives in the past, such as the patriot act and its renewals, as well as increased funding to the institutions that implemented Prism.

Both sides are very much beholden to capital interests, so it’s accurate to call it capitalist oligarchs.