Joe Rogan didn’t hold back on his latest podcast episode, unleashing a torrent of f-bombs in response to Palantir’s outrageous suggestion for a military draft. “These motherfuckers are talking about drafting people,” he exclaimed, clearly appalled by the idea.
“I just don’t understand why anybody would want to support that. That sounds crazy. Especially after this Iran war, where everybody’s like, ‘Why the fuck are we in Iran?’ And if you signed up for that, that sounds nuts. Is that real?” he added, his disbelief palpable.
Palantir Technologies, the controversial data firm known for its ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israel Defense Forces, stirred the pot last month with a manifesto advocating for a draft. This 22-point document was a summary of CEO Alex Karp’s upcoming book, “The Technological Republic.”
“National service should be a universal duty,” one of the manifesto’s early points declared. “We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.”
Rogan, who endorsed Trump for the 2024 election but has since criticized him for his “horrific” deportation tactics and “insane” immigration raids, was equally shocked by Palantir’s stance. “Why the fuck would a tech company be saying that we need to move towards a universal national military service?” he questioned. “How about fuck you? How about fuck you, you go? ’Cause you know none of these tech dorks that are running these companies, they’re not doing it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has also raised alarms about Palantir’s role in the U.S. domestic security apparatus, which reportedly includes risk-assessment technologies for “predictive policing.” But Rogan remained laser-focused on the draft issue.
“Throwing meat into the machine, throwing people’s children into these unnecessary wars,” he said. “Fuck you … It’s scary that they would, like, how about let’s figure out how to use your technology so there’s no more wars? Wouldn’t that be a better goal?”
Rogan continued his tirade: “Instead of getting kids to fucking learn how to go shoot people they don’t know because someone tells you to? And how many of these— out of all the wars we’ve been in since World War II, is it zero that made sense? I think it’s zero.”
While the U.S. military draft hasn’t been active since 1973, recent legislation ensures that eligible men will be automatically registered for the draft pool starting this December. Rogan hasn’t completely distanced himself from Trump yet but made his stance clear: “I don’t think there’s one war that we’ve been in since World War II that makes any fucking sense at all. And they’re like, ‘The solution is: We need more people to be forced into it.’”
