Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

politico.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 72 posts

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#31

Post by WarmWash »

faitswulff wrote: post #20
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #9

This does not bode well for American prosperity. This is going the way of Europe, complacent and non-competitive. The future belongs to China.

Data centers would be less contentious in the U.S. if energy was plentiful and clean. As it is, it externalizes costs onto the public and strains profit-optimized electrical grids while contributing to local pollution and global warming.

The question isn't whether that's true, the question is the magnitude of the effect.

By all accounts, it's completely blown out of proportion. If people genuinely, actually care about energy costs, they can vocally support when calls for setting your thermostat at 78F in summertime go out.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#33

Post by ImPleadThe5th »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #28
ImPleadThe5th wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a massive difference between piracy/copyright at a small scale for personal use or creative purposes and the wealthiest companies in the world devouring copyrighted materials and then selling it back to us. Actually both fit into the same category of "defending individuals from massive conglomerates". Either being sued into oblivion for sharing content or having your personal IP ripped off by companies with e…

This is why modern socialism is bankrupt. It does NOT change with scale. You ignored my part about how all socialists should call for the immediate open-sourcing of all closed models. Standing in the way of mass proliferation and dissemination of this technology is about as anti-socialist as it gets. Gatekeepers deserve no room for justification.

Socialism is about making the government work for people and protecting individuals from corporate greed.

If using AI (open source or otherwise) is going to require stealing water from or increasing energy demand on already stretched communities then AI isn't worth it.

No AI until it serves everyone equally and without sacrifices.

To me that's a more consistent stance than yours.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#34

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

faitswulff wrote: post #20
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #9

This does not bode well for American prosperity. This is going the way of Europe, complacent and non-competitive. The future belongs to China.

Data centers would be less contentious in the U.S. if energy was plentiful and clean. As it is, it externalizes costs onto the public and strains profit-optimized electrical grids while contributing to local pollution and global warming.

The same demographic is against building new power plants, especially in their vicinity. There could have been abundant power if Nixon‘s plan to build out nuclear had been allowed to proceed.

Now China does it.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#35

Post by SirFatty »

yostrovs wrote: post #18
jleyank wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not surprising at all. There is paid for the locals when these things appear, but they don’t get anything back for that paid. Even if they’re computer literate and using ai, there’s no notice that this came from their local centre. Nor is there anything that’s unique to a particular location. People get annoyed at being inconvenienced so that others, elsewhere can make money.

Here in Michigan there are large industrial facilities that most locals have no idea what is done inside. There's noise, electric usage, trucks coming in and out, but most people think it's ok. Data centers are seen differently.

"but most people think it's ok."

How would you know what "most people" think? Broad generalizations and opinion stated as fact.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#36

Post by dmix »

mapping365 wrote: post #27
Der_Einzige wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they aren't because it was never about the externalities of the data center itself (for most - it was for a few people who actually were screwed by the noise, for example). Instead, it's because most of this crowd are anti-AI luddites who hate that change is happening too fast for their minds to comprehend or adapt to. They stand in the way of a nearly limitless number of positive outcomes from this technology and…

Or look at it this way, a massive change has been forced on the public through the decisions of a small number of people. Basically the whole "Accept your fate, it is inevitable" backfired spectacularly. The people were robbed of their agency, their democratic process. This is just the democratic will reasserting its agency.

The modern version of democratic will is a sudden need to ban everything because you saw some outrage articles on social media.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#37

Post by SirFatty »

mapping365 wrote: post #6
nmeofthestate wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s rare to see political attitudes change this fast On the contrary - these mass political crazes are like flash-floods these days.

This is not your standard partisan issue. What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026 - https://www.wired.com/story/how-data-centers-broke-american-... Data center approvals in Texas halted until audits completed, Gov. Greg Abbott says - https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/03/texas-data-center-pr... DeSantis lambastes White House over possibi…

"Tucker Carlson, Kevin O’Leary"

A real meeting of the minds.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#38

Post by WarmWash »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #16

[flagged]

Thanks for saying this, it's so eye opening as you get older to see that just about everyone in these societal groups is actually just in it for themselves, and moral purity is a function of self service rather than an established baseline good.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#39

Post by dmix »

mapping365 wrote: post #10
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #9

This does not bode well for American prosperity. This is going the way of Europe, complacent and non-competitive. The future belongs to China.

Yeah, but how badly did Silicon Valley fuck this up to unite Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon in a common crusade?

An 84yr old who doesn't understand the technology and 72yr old political hack? Both of whom are populist and lived in the fringe most of their careers.

Re: Polling shows a growing political reckoning is coming for data centers

#40

Post by krapp »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #16

[flagged]

>Why don't I see the anarchist/left-wing crowd protesting for OpenAI/Anthropic to release/open-weights their models?

Because the bigger problem is the existence of these companies altogether, the violent neo-reactionary Christian dominionist cult that runs them and their connections to Western imperialism, genocide and the MIC. Do you really think that they would ever release/open-weight their models if doing so presented even a modicum of threat to their power?

The reason the anarchists/leftists are protesting AI as a technology is because AI as a technology is a capitalist/colonialist project. No one is buying your "singularity is near and it's good" rationale because Star Trek isn't real and to most people you're just saying "but what if it is, are you stupid?"

Instead of just assuming everyone who disagrees with you is "intellectually bankrupt, disingenuous, and ontologically evil" (which is a disturbingly fascistic thing for a "hardcore progressive" to state) maybe you should question your priors and attempt to see the other side (ostensibly your side) in good faith.

Also, I mean... you saying you refuse to vote for any leftist candidate, ostensibly being willing to abandon the entire moral argument for leftism, for anti-racism and anti-fascism, and to throw all of your indigenous, non-white and non-hetero friends under the bus (assuming you have them,) and describing all of your ostensible allies as basically subhuman because they don't support open weight AI models? And you have the nerve to call anyone else intellectually bankrupt? At least the leftists who refused to vote for Kamala Harris because she refused to stand against genocide had an understandble (if, IMHO, politically naive) point.

"We have to assume our role as the Demiurge. Those who oppose its creation get what they deserve." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998130)

Like, seriously? You think this is a reasonable, sensible and sane position to have?

With friends like you we don't need enemies.

Post reply on HN