Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states • Hacker News Board

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#21

Post by mindslight » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

jurschreuder wrote: post #11

The biggest change is that the left have become the conservatives

Yes, as a libertarian I was certainly quite frustrated with bureaucratic authoritarianism. But with autocratic authoritarianism now looming over us, and a bunch of people cheering it on because it seems new and exciting, I most certainly have become much more conservative!

As for data centers, I'm not against them in principle - I'm sitting ten feet away from my own rack [0]. But with the way the legal environment is set up - once something is built it becomes basically impossible to regulate - combined with the vice signalling federal executive that is likely to focus one of its two minute hates on your community if you do manage to succeed at regulating operations, it's simply best to just not give this industry a foothold in your own community. And while this is most certainly a selfish position (I'm happy to use data centers hosted elsewhere), it's all we have until we restore the equitable rule of law.

[0] I am against the centralized software that necessitates so many data centers in the first place though

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#22

Post by watwut » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #17

gremlinunderway wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Neo-luddite" is thrown around by people who don't actually know history and just eat up terminology that was spoonfed to them for a purpose. FYI, the luddite movement wasn't some stupid movement against technology for the sake of being against technology like the eventual term evolved into. Historically, they were skilled artisans who were protesting exploitative working conditions and practices that came about as a…

Interesting, do you think the current form of anti technology ideology is different from Luddism? In what way? Do you mean to say that the current protests are actually against technology for the sake of being against technology? Also, I don't say that they are against technology for technology's sake, but the real actual reason they are against technology is because they are fundamentally conservative. They act in t…

> They act in their own self interest as normal people do and try to conserve their status, employment and lifestyle. Technology tends to act against it - naturally they oppose it.

Why is the underlying assumption that tech must make life of people worst? That the only way tech can advance is by actively creating dystopia, by harming, by disrupting instead of creating better opportunities for people?

Tech changed, from positive to pure anti-human sociopathy. It used to have positive vision and many people in it actually wanted to help actual people. Then the SV pretended to want to create something good while not caring whether they were harming people. Now they stopped even pretending to want to create something good while actively openly trying to cause harm.

For christ sake, look at art. These companies could have been creating better and empowering tools for artists. Instead, they brag about destroying them, about destroying everything art communities like and then blame the victime for not being happy with that.

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#23

Post by cindyllm » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #4

periodjet wrote: post #2

Totally organic.

It is completely organic and it is not new at all. Every step change in technology involved people like this (though this one is a bit unique in size). This type of thinking: "slowing down", "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have" is the default mode of thinking for most rich/educated people. (Note: this type of thinking comes at the upper echelons of Maslow's needs - impoverished third worlde…

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Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#24

Post by simianwords » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:29 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #22

simianwords wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, do you think the current form of anti technology ideology is different from Luddism? In what way? Do you mean to say that the current protests are actually against technology for the sake of being against technology? Also, I don't say that they are against technology for technology's sake, but the real actual reason they are against technology is because they are fundamentally conservative. They act in t…

> They act in their own self interest as normal people do and try to conserve their status, employment and lifestyle. Technology tends to act against it - naturally they oppose it. Why is the underlying assumption that tech must make life of people worst? That the only way tech can advance is by actively creating dystopia, by harming, by disrupting instead of creating better opportunities for people? Tech changed, fr…

Its an interesting question and I'm biased here. As for the morals of both parties I'll leave you with this: Waymo is cool tech that actually works and saves lives everyday. These are the parties lobbying against Waymo

- Trial Lawyers because they gain from accidents [1]

- Labour Unions [2]

- Transport Unions [3]

Most recently Uber also opposed it but in a different format, but still the same. I wonder what your take on this is? Who is being anti-human here? Who wants to help people? And who are selfish? For me it looks like each one of these parties would rather have less safety in streets than have their jobs taken away.

[1] https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/07/tr...

[2] https://teamster.org/2026/03/illinois-teamsters-demand-lawma...

[3] https://www.twu.org/waymo-testing-in-nyc-is-a-danger-to-the-...

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#25

Post by g8oz » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

jurschreuder wrote: post #11

The biggest change is that the left have become the conservatives

This is not a left versus right issue. Maybe more of a NIMBY thing. Co-locating natural gas power plants along with the servers near residential neighborhoods has not helped. The stories of electricity rates rising because of data center demand also has not helped.

People are understandably concerned by changes that promise private profits and public risks.

The groundswell of opposition and anger amongst ordinary people runs more broadly than many in the tech industry understand.

Here is famed activist Erin Brockovich railing against data centers: https://youtu.be/XpQo1yQCP34

I don't know how solid her arguments are. But this is the sort of content that is helping inform the opposition that is brewing across America and abroad.

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#26

Post by watwut » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #24

watwut wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They act in their own self interest as normal people do and try to conserve their status, employment and lifestyle. Technology tends to act against it - naturally they oppose it. Why is the underlying assumption that tech must make life of people worst? That the only way tech can advance is by actively creating dystopia, by harming, by disrupting instead of creating better opportunities for people? Tech changed, fr…

Its an interesting question and I'm biased here. As for the morals of both parties I'll leave you with this: Waymo is cool tech that actually works and saves lives everyday. These are the parties lobbying against Waymo - Trial Lawyers because they gain from accidents [1] - Labour Unions [2] - Transport Unions [3] Most recently Uber also opposed it but in a different format, but still the same. I wonder what your take…

> Waymo is cool tech that actually works and saves lives everyday

Is it? I don't know. I was listening about self driving cars being better the people for years now ... only to find every single time it was a lie. And always comes with "but that was old tech", but the new tech is better.

But I do give you that they are one of the few "seems like they are not as casual about killing people as Uber and Musk and rest of SB". Note that the hate toward them is also much lower then hate of AI and Musk.

> Labour Unions

Considering destruction of labor unions ended up being bad news for average poorer workers and considering the K shaped economy ... maybe we need more of them.

> Most recently Uber

Uber is poster child of a tech company being build on a fraud, trying to sell service under price, create monopoly and then jack up price. And no, famous medallions were not everywhere, plenty of places had and still have normal competitive taxi market. What Uber did there was to break labor rules, sell drives under price from VC money, tope to establish monopoly, hope law obeying taxi companies and drivers will.

All the while SV celebrated it. Frankly Uber is one of the reasons why tech is hated so generally.

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #18

simianwords wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is completely organic and it is not new at all. Every step change in technology involved people like this (though this one is a bit unique in size). This type of thinking: "slowing down", "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have" is the default mode of thinking for most rich/educated people. (Note: this type of thinking comes at the upper echelons of Maslow's needs - impoverished third worlde…

I haven't heard neither "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have", you are literally making them up. But more importantly, it is not true that every step was like this. In my lifetime, AI is uniquely disliked and it is really its own fault. No other technology was booed in speeches, no other had equivalents of tokenmaxxing and top down push, no other promised dystopia and doom and gloom as selli…

[deleted]

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#28

Post by watwut » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #20

watwut wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't heard neither "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have", you are literally making them up. But more importantly, it is not true that every step was like this. In my lifetime, AI is uniquely disliked and it is really its own fault. No other technology was booed in speeches, no other had equivalents of tokenmaxxing and top down push, no other promised dystopia and doom and gloom as selli…

> No other technology was booed in speeches NFTs, DRM, Linux at Microsoft conferences, Microsoft at Linux conferences, Google Glass, blockchain. Those have all been booed at some point. AI's not unique in that regard.

All of them are either harmful or gambling. And gambling is harmful. Like, people booging SBF or Holmes or Shkreli also does not prove anything about universal hate of tech. It is people booing frauds.

I give them that no one was idiotic enough to try to push NFT and crypto on students in commencement speech.

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#29

Post by stevenalowe » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

"The protests were coordinated by HumansFirst, co-founded by a former leader of the modern-day Tea Party."

Stopped reading there.

Re: Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

#30

Post by jurschreuder » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 4:09 AM UTC

g8oz wrote: post #25

jurschreuder wrote: post #11

The biggest change is that the left have become the conservatives

This is not a left versus right issue. Maybe more of a NIMBY thing. Co-locating natural gas power plants along with the servers near residential neighborhoods has not helped. The stories of electricity rates rising because of data center demand also has not helped. People are understandably concerned by changes that promise private profits and public risks. The groundswell of opposition and anger amongst ordinary peo…

Your point is more about which side is right and which side is wrong.

My point is more about a cultural shift in who's on which side.

The traditional left has become conservative in that they don't want new technology.

While the traditional capitalists want basic income so they can keep building all this cool stuff and keep playing their game of building AI and robots.

What does more harm? Going back to the middle ages having another one of these dark ages where technology is shunned? Will China and Russia then grab power?

Or will we really have a dictator AI?

Possibly both where China is ruling over less advanced countries with AI. They are clearly not stopping developing technology no matter what the west decides.