Alex Karp walked onto the DealBook Summit stage and did what too few executives dare to do: he called out the comfortable elites who pretend our institutions are functioning when ordinary Americans are left paying the bill. His blunt assessment — that people in power make stupid decisions and then get bailed out while the rest of us get nothing — landed like a cold splash of water on the New York crowd.
When Karp pointed out that “poor people” are the ones who suffer for collective mistakes and suggested the national response to the fentanyl crisis would look different if elites were the ones dying, he hit a nerve. That reality — that the ruling class only notices suffering when it affects its own children — explains the audible gasp from a room trained to lionize victim narratives that only travel one way.
Conservatives should stop pretending the media-blessed elites own the moral high ground; Karp’s remarks were a welcome dose of inconvenient truth. He’s not preaching tribal talking points — he’s naming a culture that protects status and credentials while ignoring consequences for the rest of America, and that’s a critique conservatives have been making for years.
The DealBook crowd’s shock says more about them than about Karp. He’s openly rejected the credentialism and soft culture of modern tech, calling Palantir “anti-woke” and pushing a warrior ethos that values real achievement over cushy diplomas, and that kind of clarity makes self-satisfied elites uncomfortable. If journalists gasp when someone defends merit and the rule of law, they’ve already chosen sides.
Karp didn’t stop at cultural critique; he defended his company’s work with law enforcement and argued that precise, accountable tools can make immigration and national-security policy more constitutional — a pragmatic conservative position wrapped in technocratic terms. Rather than demonize a company that helps keep Americans safe, conservatives should applaud leaders who prioritize real-world outcomes over performative virtue.
Let the New York cocktail circuit clutch its pearls. The rest of the country — the men and women who pay taxes, raise families, and face the daily consequences of bad policy — already know who’s speaking for them. Alex Karp’s candidness was a reminder that patriotism and hard truths can come from unexpected places, and conservatives should be loud and proud in answering that call.
