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

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

#31

Post by gremlinunderway » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 4:22 AM 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…

No, I'm saying is that you fundamentally don't understand what "Luddism" even is or was at any point. Let me be clear. The the term "Luddite" is completely made up. The group it was supposedly based on were simply people whop opposed exploitation at the time of early industrialization. The state at the time came up with this trope of "they are against technology!" as a way to undercut that movement and impose harsh punitive measures like capital punishment for machine breaking. They weren't just self-interested / conservative people who simply went out to conserve status, employment and lifestyle by opposing technology, that's a label/strawman put on them by the British government at the time.

Just like there was no real luddism historically, there's no group of people who are just selfish people fighting against technology out of pure self-interest. This is just a strawman setup by people who don't wish to receive criticism for their own use of technology as a means of exploitation.

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

#32

Post by anon7000 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:18 AM UTC

jurschreuder wrote: post #30

g8oz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ag…

Anti-AI sentiment isn’t a leftist specific thing. Tech workers are predominantly liberal in my experience, and many like AI (or at least don’t despise it) but also have progressive views on other things.

I’m also not aware of any republicans or conservatives advocating for UBI.

Corporations are kind of a 3rd party here. They’ll do literally anything for profit, celebrate pride month for the liberals, give Trump some considerations at inauguration for the conservatives. So yeah, tech AI CEOs opine that their companies will usher in a new era of prosperity, but this is probably 90% PR speak

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

#33

Post by simianwords » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:19 AM UTC

gremlinunderway wrote: post #31

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…

No, I'm saying is that you fundamentally don't understand what "Luddism" even is or was at any point. Let me be clear. The the term "Luddite" is completely made up. The group it was supposedly based on were simply people whop opposed exploitation at the time of early industrialization. The state at the time came up with this trope of "they are against technology!" as a way to undercut that movement and impose harsh p…

Who do you think came up with the term Luddites?

You are confusing a lot of things here. Like the existence of the movement and the people itself. And you are questioning the existence by using an adjacent topic of Luddites were not against technology.

Luddites did exist. And the people opposing data centers now are the same type of people.

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

#34

Post by anon7000 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:29 AM 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…

Every societal shift that puts large groups of people out of jobs gets protested. Just look at how protected various groups are (like car dealerships vs online sales) because they lobbied at the right time. Same deal for the groups protesting Waymo.

The human thing to do is to protest if your livelihood is going away. That’s not evil. But it is a problem when the government just encodes one groups desires even if it’s not actually better for people.

If a community sees a building going in that they think will pollute the community (light noise, water, literally anything), they have a right to protest and push back. Does it matter what the reason is?

People are concerned about data centers because they are perceived to be disruptive and polluting, and not offering a public good to the community.

People are concerned about LLMs because there are existential questions about work, information (and misinformation), learning, and so much more. That big AI firms don’t have any answers for other than “oh yeah we’ll bulldoze that career.”

So yeah, people are concerned about this, and it’s valid. This does not make them generally anti-progress or anti-human or even anti-technology .

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

#35

Post by simianwords » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 8:09 AM UTC

anon7000 wrote: post #34

simianwords wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Every societal shift that puts large groups of people out of jobs gets protested. Just look at how protected various groups are (like car dealerships vs online sales) because they lobbied at the right time. Same deal for the groups protesting Waymo. The human thing to do is to protest if your livelihood is going away. That’s not evil. But it is a problem when the government just encodes one groups desires even if it’…

I completely agree with you except the environment part which seems forced. It is valid for people to be concerned with their jobs. But in writing this obvious thing we both agree about, you have forgotten the more interesting part: Waymo stands to reduce a significant number of deaths. What does it say about the ethics of labour unions? In fact, if you could leverage any control over all this, what would you do? Release waymo or protect people's jobs?

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

#36

Post by mindslight » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

stevenalowe wrote: post #29

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

There are legitimate frustrations behind reactionaries' anger. Even if you don't personally share them, it would behoove you to understand them. The Tea Party era is when the movement really started listing towards populist-expedience-grift, but that doesn't automatically indict its leaders per se - especially if they're now on a topic you might care about.

And yes, I know it's unfair to ask you to do the work of understanding and addressing frustrations that aren't your own, when reactionaries won't even do this work - instead throwing their support behind a con man like Grump and declaring it's all one big joke. But someone has to, right?

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

#37

Post by stevenalowe » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #36

stevenalowe wrote: post #29

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

There are legitimate frustrations behind reactionaries' anger. Even if you don't personally share them, it would behoove you to understand them. The Tea Party era is when the movement really started listing towards populist-expedience-grift, but that doesn't automatically indict its leaders per se - especially if they're now on a topic you might care about. And yes, I know it's unfair to ask you to do the work of und…

No. The tea party was a clown show, no reason to expect anything different from this

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

#38

Post by mindslight » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

stevenalowe wrote: post #37

mindslight wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are legitimate frustrations behind reactionaries' anger. Even if you don't personally share them, it would behoove you to understand them. The Tea Party era is when the movement really started listing towards populist-expedience-grift, but that doesn't automatically indict its leaders per se - especially if they're now on a topic you might care about. And yes, I know it's unfair to ask you to do the work of und…

No. The tea party was a clown show, no reason to expect anything different from this

"Clown show" kind of implies a limited scope and general harmlessness, no? The legacy of that "clown show" is currently selling our country's institutions for scrap value, so that term would seem to massively undersell its actual effects.

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

#39

Post by gwerbin » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #38

stevenalowe wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The tea party was a clown show, no reason to expect anything different from this

"Clown show" kind of implies a limited scope and general harmlessness, no? The legacy of that "clown show" is currently selling our country's institutions for scrap value, so that term would seem to massively undersell its actual effects.

Clown shows are entertaining and distracting, and all the foibles and silliness is a carefully-calibrated act. Sounds apt to me.

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

#40

Post by stevenalowe » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 11:44 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #38

stevenalowe wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The tea party was a clown show, no reason to expect anything different from this

"Clown show" kind of implies a limited scope and general harmlessness, no? The legacy of that "clown show" is currently selling our country's institutions for scrap value, so that term would seem to massively undersell its actual effects.

when a clown moves into the palace, the palace becomes a circus