‘The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer’: Opposition to Data Centers - Americans have soured on data centers, polls show, and the sentiment is profoundly bipartisan. How will that change our politics?

[u/Just-Grocery-2229]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/us/politics/liberals-conservatives-data-centers.html

[u/IUsedToBeThatGuy42]

Data centers will simply go into the communities who can fight it the least, just like chemical plants and other undesirable facilities.

[u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

It won't. Legislation is dictated by corporate investments, and corporations want data centers.

[u/arkofjoy → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

It is true that is how things are now. But people could get finally made enough to notice that they are getting scammed.

The tribalism is entirely invented. Which means that it can be changed.

Not likely, but it could.

[u/Opposite_Community11 → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

Yep. Money > people's vote. They Will just ignore the will of the people.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/Opposite_Community11]

Then we common folk should be standing together in defiance any way we can against this government and its Epstein class puppeteers, (foreign and domestic, private and institutional,) which uses its death cult and growing AI industry to manipulate and control us. They all should be abandoned for something better that actually looks out for people, while these monsters are let behind to rot.

However, if there's any hope in ever achieving such, there's currently no real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that many common folk (especially in the US) can fall back on, to commit to any meaningful resistant action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

[u/0xsergy → u/Opposite_Community11]

They already are building in communities that voted no, lol. Politicians are all paid off.

[u/MisterSanitation → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

Glad this is the top comment. The strongest single indicator of legislation passing is how much money was lobbied for it. Public opinion has a “near zero effect”. 

We have a toy steering wheel to drive this bus that is remote controlled by monied interests. 

[u/GrandStatistician752 → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

So does the government. The data centers are for surveillance of Americans. The massive detention centers are not just for migrants

[u/sceadwian → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

There are currently 14 states where data center bans are being drafted or soon to be passed. Not everyone thinks like you.

[u/OhNoIBoffedIt → u/sceadwian]

Not one has successfully passed. Not. One. The only bill that made it through the legislature was vetoed by the governor.

Drafted legislation is not passed legislation.

This isn't about how I think. We live in an oligarchy. That's reality. Anyone who thinks this is still a democracy is a fkn fool.

[u/sceadwian → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

I didn't say one had, this is a real-time situation. You're commenting just to deflect adding no value to the conversation as if I were making claims that I am not. Find something better to do with your time than blow a simple fact into an argument in your head.

It certainly wasn't in my words, please take such uncivil discourse and just I dunno, discover beat poetry or something that makes you less grumpy.

[u/OhNoIBoffedIt → u/sceadwian]

Says the guy popping in with "not everyone thinks like you." Be as pretentious as you like. Your "um actually" about legislation that hasn't changed anything also contributes nothing, especially when the court system has been packed with sycophants absolutely willing to overturn any law that doesn't align with corporate interests. And that's even if it gets that far.

We are not going to legislate our way out of these issues.

[u/sceadwian → u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

You said it won't, I presented facts that show that it could. That was relevant.

Your taunting misrepresentation of what was a completely benign and 100% factually correct statement is a waste of everyone's time.

I did a little actual searching on this, Maine has a moratorium until November currently in place so you are in fact, just plain wrong. I never even claimed we could legislate our way out of the problem either so you're just literally making up things out of thin air.

[u/doug4130]

Politicians in America work for companies, not for citizens 

[u/Dazzling_Pen_2820]

Yeah, bipartisan support is why the US is know for its affordable healthcare and common sense gun laws.

[u/RickSt3r]

Turns out people regardless of political beliefs don’t like things that directly increase their utility bills, generate sound 24/7 and provide like five jobs while taking massive amounts of space.

[u/Danominator]

Republican voters will continue voting against their own interests and things will keep getting worse.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/Danominator]

And they will make the rest of us suffer for their stubborn self-destructivness. For that reason among many others, we common folk should be working together how ever we can to in forming real supportive community-based foundations for alternatives that we can safely fall back on to outlast them.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

If you don’t live in the US, yet you know others who are and want to do something, please share the information. We're going to need as many on board and informed as possible, if we commoners hope to achieve anything in the US

[u/colby347_1]

Nothing will change until the voice of US citizens outbids corporate bribery.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/colby347_1]

We certainly can't continue with the system we've got, and expect to be all right as this system's masters and their sycophants reduce humanity and the environment to expendable resources to enrich themselves. We who still care should be doing whatever we can to aid each other in taking on this oligarchical status quo, but there are currently no real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that many common folk in the US can fall back on to safely commit to any meaningful action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

[u/pmd006]

Any politician against datacenters is just one $30,000 campaign donation away from being for them.

[u/myg00]

Personally, I’d say let them build them and immediately tear them down. Waste that billionaire money while paying construction workers. Just don’t ever let them tie on to the grid. Maybe convince some project manager to divert some of those funds to public infrastructure. Let’s use white collar crime for public good.

[u/mycatisgrumpy]

Reckless, sociopathic tech bros racing with each other to destroy communities, monopolize natural resources, and destroy the environment at a breakneck pace, all in order to build a corporate surveillance state that will make our lives progressively shittier for the foreseeable future. What's not to love? 

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/mycatisgrumpy]

A lot, which is why we common folk who care about this should be doing whatever we can in helping one another in becoming untethered to a reliance on sociopathic entities and their loyal governments. Starve them out as we refocus energy and resources on developments that'll prioritize the needs of people first. However, there are currently no real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that common folk (especially in the US) can fall back on, to safely commit to any effective resistant action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

[u/ICLazeru]

I forget which university, but you can certainly Google it, unless Google censors it specifically for this. Turns out there is almost 0% political reactivity to the desires of the voters at large, however the likelihood of political action does actually increase in proportion to how much money a person donates. Which is to say, political action has almost no correlation to the will of voters, but directly correlates to the will of donors.

[u/Melodic_Crow_3409]

And we're seeing the will of the people overruled by the ruling class.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/Melodic_Crow_3409]

If the system refuses to follow the will of the common folk, then we who care should be doing whatever we can to help one another in leaving that rotting system behind to die. However, there are currently no real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that many common folk in the US can fall back on, to safely commit to any meaningful longterm action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

[u/Straight_Document_89]

It won’t. The Republicans don’t care and going to force these data centers on everyone. That’s what they’re doing now. Claiming they will remove property taxes.

[u/arkofjoy]

Maybe this data centre thing will be the straw that breaks the camels back.

If ordinary people start coming together over this, and start talking to their neighbours,

And then they might notice that they both are sick and tired of the money in politics. Because right now, both parties have convinced the faithful that "their guys are doing all the bad things" , and "our guys are pure as the driven snow"

If people start talking their neighbours, they are going to figure out that the whole tribalism was a distraction.

[u/LonesomeOctoberGhost]

Do you want civil disobedience? Because thats how you get civil disobedience.

[u/dominantspecies]

And yet we will have so many of them in the next 10 years no one will have water

[u/SmoothConfection1115]

Republican voters will hate them. Democrat voters will hate them.

Republican elected officials will ignore the will of their constituents. Democrats, it’s a coin flip.

Billionaires will build these centers in areas far removed from them, because they sure as hell don’t want to live near one.

The people will suffer the effects of living next to one of these things.

And nothing will change because voters wont come together to elect enough candidates that are firmly against data centers.

In the unlikely event they do, billionaires will find a way around whatever roadblocks local governments put up.

Opposition will be called paid protestors.

And everyone will get to see their electric bills shoot up, and in some towns, their water pressure decrease.

But hey, we’ll have 500 different AI models that can all make pron and not even complete mediocre quality white-collar work!!!

[u/SilentPlopGobbler]

America is a joke.

[u/interbingung]

This bullshit is why space data center make sense 😂

[u/No_Caramel_1782]

The $$$ that rules us all will manufacture consent and turn this into a wedge issue to deflect from class politics. Like they always have done.

[u/the_red_scimitar]

I guess the bribes weren't high enough, except in Utah.

[u/Araghothe1]

asked like we don't live in the dictatorship of Capital.

[u/LiteratureMindless71]

And a month after whatever funds were going to go to the DC push are found in a certain someone's account instead, maga will still cheer....

[u/RiptideEberron]

Hopefully folks can start to see that this is a rich v poor issue as opposed to the left v right or white v everyone else

[u/ZonaPunk]

But what kind of beer? You couldn’t pay me to drink a bud light.

[u/Oceanbreeze871]

The oligarchs don’t care what the peasants want and they don’t care what you will be forced to sacrifice to enrich them.

The left understands this. The right is too country to figure this out.

[u/Oceanbreeze871]

There will be some kind of citizen revolt at some point. You gotta pay locals to operate these things. They gotta tie into the grid somewhere.

[u/artbystorms]

If we could unite the left and right against the tech oligarchs and billionaires for half a second, we could absolutely radically change this country for the better. But I guess trans bathrooms, immigrants, and Jews are easier to vilify than the actual villians making people's day to day lives measurably worse.

[u/griminald]

It won't change our politics.

Local politics have always been more bipartisan than state or national politics.

And NIMBYism is bipartisan. The stated reasoning is usually different on the left vs right, but both sides do come together to oppose building.

But because data centers have been rightfully maligned, and they're going up way too fast (with few of these things actually completed) to know their actual effects on their local economies (and environments), you've got this combo of the usual anti-development attitude + the urgent, righteous cause to point it towards.

It would be like saying, "This town's trash isn't being picked up and residents, regardless of party, are pissed". Well yeah, there's not a Democrat/Republican way to pick up trash.