The idea that the individual citizen has to assume blame for erosion of facts-based society is somewhat insulting. I don’t own a cable news channel. I didn’t found Cambridge Analytica. I don’t own Meta or TikTok feeds. Don’t blame me as the individual for the lack of facts. Let’s not forget the numerous lies tech industry CEOs have told us. Why should I commit to facts when they won’t?

It is the tech industry’s own system that has spread the misinformation about data centers. They’re just dogfooding their own ideal society and oopsed their way into feeling a negative result for themselves. They can turn off the algorithm right now and stop pushing engagement bait and put all our feeds back into chronological mode. If they did that a long time ago, I bet the outrage over AI data centers would be insignificant. How did that outrage spread in the first place?

This isn’t about facts, this is about politics. Politics are “who is on my side, who is going to help me, who has wronged me,” etc.

Virginia as you pointed out now has to make a special tax just to make the data centers worth having. The implication is that property, payroll, income, and sales tax aren’t enough to make them a net positive for the state.

Data centers have no almost no interaction with the local economy. They don’t rely on local suppliers, barely employ anyone, and don’t sell or buy local products and services in the area.

That is a vindictive way to view the world. It'll be a race to the bottom if everyone gives up on facts and says whatever is politically expedite. I would urge you not to give into it, although I certainly understand the frustration.