No, it's not a proxy fight about AI. The data centers are just bad, for several, easy-to-explain reasons:

1. They get massive tax breaks;

2. Everyone else pays for the electricity infrastructure that they need to suppor tthem;

3. They pollute water supplies;

4. Everybody's electricity prices go up while the DC has a sweetheart deal that, again, everyone else is paying for;

5. There are no jobs unlike, say, if someone used that same money to buuild an auto plant; and

6. They tend to very far noiser than you might think, such that they probably violate noise ordinances when built near residential property but nobody enforces that. We have industrial areas for this reason but that zoning just gets completely ignored.

AI is a whole separate debate. That one, too, is pretty simple. AI is selling labor displacement and wage suppression. That's the only product. Getting rid of the data centers won't get rid of that. The DCs are just going where it's cheapest, where local officials don't have the resources to fight it and where people can be bullied or bribed into approving it. Move them somewhere else slightly more expensive and it'll still be displacing labor.

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mattas an hour ago | parent | next [-]

In theory, let's say that a data center was proposed that:

1. got no tax breaks

2. self-generated electricity with greenest of green generation

3. did not pollute water supplies

4. made electricity prices go down somehow

5. (can't figure out a theoretical version where there are lots of jobs, sorry)

6. was extremely quiet

Would people still be mad about them?

I'm trying to figure out if the bad reasons are the _actual_ reason people are generally against data centers. Or if it's really more about "AI bad."

	▲	nemomarx an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think at least it would be hard to get a nimby protest movement going with those conditions. Maybe add in building it somewhere people can't see it?
	▲	jeltz an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Yes, people were mad about them due to the tax breaks here in Sweden long before LLMs were a thing.
	▲	yoyohello13 an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Personally if your 6 points were true, I would not be mad about them.
	▲	UtopiaPunk 38 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		A lot less people would be mad, yeah. In my own area, the mere rumor of a data center was enough to galvanize activity and get write-ups in the local news. The focus, generally, was on how it would raise electricity costs for the county and use up variable water resources right as we are facing water shortages here. A lot of people here are in precarious financial situations, they do not want to see any costs go up. Inflation at the grocery store, high gas prices, high mortgages/rent, and a lousy job market have people on edge. I don't know if the average Joe is worried about AI leading to a dystopian hellscape, but he at least doesn't see AI providing any benefit to making ends meet. Turned out not be a data center, but just the possibility caused a stir.
	▲	Ensorceled an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I'm trying to figure out if the bad reasons are the _actual_ reason people are generally against data centers. The list is long and includes things like people not being able to afford AC anymore; why are you trying to figure this out?

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causal an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It's also absurd how few jobs or income they provide to the community that is expected to host htem