[24299] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Script of my national radio report yesterday on
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lauren Weinstein)
Tue Aug 25 10:51:53 2026
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:44:07 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
To: privacy-dist@vortex.com
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This is the script of my national network radio report yesterday on
the rapidly accelerating backlash against data centers. As always
there may have been minor wording variations from this script as I
presented this report live on air.
- - -
Yep, this story keeps getting bigger exploding into the public
consciousness as we get closer to the midterm elections. Reports
everywhere about massive public backlash to data centers and AI, all
over the country in blue states and red states, in all demographic
groups, republicans, democrats, independents, people of all ages.
Surveys say more than 70% of U.S. residents oppose data centers with
very few differences related to political preferences or really any
other factors.
Many politicians are suddenly scrambling to align their public
positions with the enormous negative public sentiment toward data
centers, even when just months ago in some cases these same
politicians were publicly pro-data centers. States are enacting
moratoriums and new data center regulations even in some states that
were previously massively boosting the idea of inviting data centers
in with open arms and massive financial incentives.
The politicians are realizing that ordinary people whether in
unspoiled rural areas or in urban areas or anywhere in-between mostly
despise these massive, monstrous data centers. These data centers are
the physical manifestations of the AI that spews out misinformation
and deep fakes and scam product promotions, phishing attacks, inept
and sometimes dangerous AI agents, and all the rest that most people
hate and that the AI firms mostly refuse to take responsibility for.
It's understood now that after construction finishes these data
centers are run by just a handful of people, sometimes just a dozen or
less -- significant long term job improvements mostly don't happen.
People realize that many of these data centers drive up regional
electric rates, can cause water shortages, can pollute the air with
gas-powered generators and create 24/7 noise from their equipment
rumbling nearby homes continuously, driving residents crazy, and
destroying homes' property values.
The billionaire Big Tech CEOs thought that they could push this all
through as they've done so often in the past, but it appears that
they've finally spewed the straw that broke the proverbial camel's
back. Some of the firms are now warning investors and potential
investors that the financial risks from this massive backslash are
getting very real.
In a matter really of just months, data centers and associated AI have
fallen victim to the trust deficit that Big Tech has been building up
for decades. Pretty much everyone knows that trusting these firms to
care about society and not just mainly their bottom lines is not a
good plan.
So now we're actually seeing data centers as a primary topic of
discussion at politicians' town hall meetings and increasingly in
major political TV commercials, where lines like "we don't want crime
or data centers in our neighborhoods" are actually being heard -- yes
data centers and crime in the same bucket labeled as community
destroyers, and rightly so.
I'm unaware of any major issue involving technology or perhaps even
not including tech, that has so rapidly gathered such powerfully
negative public reaction in such a manner. It's like the rebelling
crowd's refrain from the end of The Who's rock opera "Tommy": "We're
not gonna take it!", or the famous line from the film "Network": "I'm
as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" And of course
there's the Twisted Sister song too.
Data center and AI backlash is a veritable tsunami headed directly at
the political careers of politicians everywhere. And politicians
regardless of their party who don't understand this, are liable to be
finding those careers deeply underwater and nothing but a memory, very
soon indeed.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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