Data Centers in America: The Good, The Bad & The Dystopian

This is by far the scariest article I've ever read.  And I read a lot of boring-ass factual articles about a lot of anxiety-provoking topics.  It's written to an audience of AI investors, meaning it actually goes LIGHT on the doom and gloom surrounding AI's effect on society in the coming years.  Keep that in mind as you read, k? 



The GOOD

Data center protests have united Americans across party lines

To be clear, there's nothing whatsoever positive about the construction of these energy and water-sucking, noise and actual pollution causing health and environmental threats.  While it's tempting to present a "both sides" argument as is customary in the U.S. mainstream media, that's just not possible here.  The only positive thing about this situation is the pushback we're seeing against it. 

Here's some of the scant good news from the article (even though the author frames it as a BAD omen for tech investors):

- The protesting of data centers in communities is the only issue in recent years to unite people across party lines.  “We had someone there in a Trump hat, and we had someone there with a Democratic Socialist shirt. We had young people, old people,” she said. “We were all there fighting for the same thing: for our community and for transparency. I think that is a huge reason that we’ve been successful in shifting this election.”

- Over the past two years, residents have blocked or delayed a staggering $64 billion worth of data-center projects.  ✊🏾✊🏻✊🏼

- Surprisingly, about 55% of the elected officials who have spoken out against data centers are Republicans, not Democrats.  Conservatives are the party of small government that generally sides with big business and corporations regardless of the cost to the environment or people, so their stance on this issue highlights just how destructive the AI industry truly is.

- "13 bullets and a Molotov cocktail".  Just after midnight Monday morning*, Indianapolis councilman Ron Gibson and his eight-year-old son woke to gunshots.  Someone fired 13 bullets at his front door, leaving a handwritten note that read, “NO DATA CENTERS.”  And on Friday of the same week, San Francisco police announced they had caught someone who threw a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.  Elsewhere, an unidentified man threatened to burn down a data center.  

* Article written April 15, 2026

While violence isn't desirable, it's the only language greedy psychopaths understand.  They're willing to kill us "softly" with noise and air pollution, economic disaster, water wars & other toxic downstream effects of these data centers in their pursuit of endless greed--at a certain point we've got to be willing to meet them where they're at.  




The BAD

We are here: America's AI nightmare (click for full size)

From massive tax breaks to sweeping job loss across all industries, AI is set to screw Americans over royally... and permanently.  Here's a taste of just how BAD the bad truly is:

- One Microsoft data center in Illinois received more than $38 million in data center sales tax exemptions but created just 20 permanent jobs.

- According to the article's author, "There will be millions… and perhaps tens of millions… of jobs cut in America in the years ahead thanks to artificial intelligence (AI)."  This includes tech companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon that've already seen layoffs.  He continues:

“If you’re one of the 2.5 million to 3 million folks employed by a Big Tech company… your job is absolutely at risk, whether or not the company denies it today.” 

“Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent across America on building AI… with the ultimate goal of displacing millions of American workers.”

Rather than taking manual labor jobs first as was predicted, AI is coming for more specialized jobs requiring a college degree.  Careers in the Administrative & Support, Writing and Content Production, Law and Finance and Customer Service industries are at particular risk.

 - Right now, roughly 3 in 4 states has some kind of incentive intended to attract a data center… mostly around sales tax exemptions.  But few of those states publicly disclose the details or whether the tax breaks are worthwhile for residents.  (Spoiler alert: they're soooo NOT). 

- From rising energy costs to environmental destruction to 24/7 noise & light pollution and other serious health risks, these behemoths are a threat to any community within a 5 mile radius.  They also lower residential property values dramatically due to all of the above.  A recent poll revealed that a majority of those surveyed would prefer to live next to a nuclear power plant over a data center, and Americans are notoriously anti-nuclear energy.

 

The DYSTOPIAN

Bayfront Park, Miami billboard

And now for the truly horrifying truth that the upper echelons don't want us plebs to know.  The TL;DR version:  America is about to come apart at the seams, literally "ripping" as one section of the populace becomes filthy rich(er) while the other nosedives further into poverty & despair thanks to AI rendering us obsolete.  The "K-shaped economy," it's called.  This will lead to violent protest, revolt & mass casualties.  How do we know?  We've seen it before with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.  

The "Ripping Point" Economy:  “Two Americas with a divide that is reaching the ripping point."   

We've all heard of the tipping point, but what is the "ripping point?"  The article defines it as "the gap between those who are thriving and those who are struggling, which has gotten so wide that it no longer feels like a gap. It feels like a tear."  According to Whitney Tilson who coined the term:

Federal Reserve data shows that the top 1% in America now controls nearly one-third of the nation’s wealth. The bottom half of the U.S. population, on the other hand, controls less than 3%. And white-collar employment has fallen for 17 straight months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Social unrest is growing. Debt is ballooning. Political extremism is spreading.

For a wide swath of the population, the American dream is getting harder to even imagine, much less attain.

I’m concerned that our whole way of life is being swept away in front of our eyes…

Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs. Violent swings are battering the stock market. Entire industries are collapsing around us.

I’m not only worried for older folks like me. I have three beautiful daughters. And it feels like their future gets more unstable with every passing day.

It’s not just because of the extreme political division or violent protests that seem to be a regular part of our lives now. I mean the deeper change that we can all feel.

We’re living through a permanent reset in our economy. It’s making the world – the one our children are going to inherit – deeply unstable.

"...So anyway, here's how you plucky inve$tor$ can protect your inve$tment$ in the event the poors decide to rise up."  That's basically the tone of this bizarre and frightening article.  The writing is literally on the wall:  America is cooked and the planet is about to be fried even sooner than climate doomologists predicted.

I'm encouraged by the pushback I'm seeing across the country and even in my own docile ignorant community, but I'm appalled at the way law-abiding, tax paying citizens are being literally shut out of townhall meetings as these backdoor deals with data centers are being done over their protests and erected in their own backyards.  Not only should the public officials engaging in this illegal behavior be removed from office, they should be held legally accountable.  Put them on trial like you would any other employee caught breaking the law.  These are paid civil servants & representatives, often paid with our tax dollars, which means they should be held to even higher standards than the rest of us.  Instead it's often just the opposite.  That includes everyone from your local podunk mayor to Donald Trump. 

Or we can do this the extrajudicial way: with bullets, fires in the night and Molotοv cocktails.  And judging by the terrorism charges pinned on non-violent oil industry protesters, these acts will likely earn offenders life--or even death--in an American prison. It only gets worse from here, folks.

Please feel free to drop these graphics and statistics in your comments and arguments against data centers and AI expansion.  

Help keep real writing/journalism alive in the age of aI by donating anonymously to one of the Bitcoin accounts below.  Anything helps.  Thank you!  🤖🚫


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