[ohnoitsahuman]

The west is a culture not a race. For example many Asian people are more western than many white Americans.

[9dev]

Innate… superiority? There are zero ways to interpret this that are okay if you have a sliver of moral integrity in you.

[JumpCrisscross]

> There are zero ways to interpret this that are okay if you have a sliver of moral integrity in you

I think democracies are innately superior, including morally, to autocracies. I think market-based economic systems are innately competitive against--and in their capacity to empower individual production, morally superior to--command economies.

[polotics]

Well at least for pigs, cross-breeding is innately superior to consanguinity.... I don't think that is what Palantir's boss was getting at here though.

[Bancakes]

Quick question, would you rather own a US/EU citizenship or any other? Why?

[slg]

People often use "racism" as a stand-in for all bigotry. You are correct that this technically isn't racist, but it is instead textbook xenophobia, so your comment is mostly just an annoying pedantic correction that doesn't actually address the underlying point being made about the bigotry of the original statement.

[JumpCrisscross]

> it is instead textbook xenophobia, so your comment is mostly just an annoying pedantic correction

We're in the midst of a backlash to reducing the word racism to a banal definition. Let's learn from it.

Karp's statement is xenophobic, jingoistic and bigoted. It's worded to not offend racists, because we have a lot of them in government right now. But it's not racist per se, and will be found agreeable by many non-racists in a non-racist way.

[portaouflop]

“The west” is synonymous with white people, especially in this context

[michpoch]

It’s not. The West = Europe, US and their the allies.

Japan is in the West and last time I checked they were still Asians.

[polotics]

Well, until quite recently in the US polite society, the Irish were not considered white... So entering into any kind of debate with such ill defined terminology as "the West" or "White" seems extremely pointless to me. Only snake-oil salesmen would use such terms in earnest.

[mingus88]

And there is a great diversity of white people in Europe with competing interests. It’s not so simple.

[zingababba]

Karp is mixed race.

[anothercoup]

> The west is a culture not a race.

It can be both depending on the context. A westerner is a european or a european descended person.

> For example many Asian people are more western than many white Americans.

What does this even mean? How can an asian person be more western than a white american. That's like saying a white american be more "eastern" than a chinese person.

I've never heard an asian person say they are a westerner. There may be asian people who appreciate western culture more than some westerners, but that doesn't make them a westerner. No more than a white american who appreciates chinese culture more than the average chinese makes him a chinese person.

Or are we talking about different things here?

[lxgr]

Would you really not consider e.g. adoptive children to be part of the culture of their adoptive parents?

> How can an asian person be more western than a white american.

Very easily, since one is an ethnicity, while the other is a nationality/culture.

[BobaFloutist]

Culture is not innate, so it's pretty obvious that he was referring to race.

[hyperold]

Innate in this context may just well refer to the fact that he strongly believes that values rated pretty high in the west like democracy are inherently good and they should be promoted to the rest of the world. Note that I don't personally agree with that, I strongly think everyone should be minding their own business. Truly superior ways are copied and emulated sooner or later anyway.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Culture is not innate

This is true. I've seen folks--even smart ones--mis-use innate to mean fundamental.