Is This the Fastest Opinion Shift in American Politics?
nytimes.comSeventy-one percent of Americans say they don’t want an A.I. data center built close to where they live. Why?
Outrage media economy / NIMBY? There is a general malaise at prices and a target is needed. Data centers and the Trump-Bibi-Iran War are currently those targets seen as the primary driver of high prices, which have consistently been the top political issue for Americans for many years now.
To add color, Pew Research from last month on the software side of things: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/americans-an...
I'd want to know how that 71% compares to other things; like housing, parks, prisons, or factories; to get a general floor of NIMBY-ness.
But data centers are easy to hate on. They don't provide a lot of jobs, other than initial construction. And being close to a data center has no benefit compared to being far away from a data center.
indeed, I do support showing down and being responsible, forcing the companies to pay for electrical infra build out, using minimal water cooling systems
they have all this money, they can afford adhering to stricter requirements
> There is a general malaise at prices and a target is needed. Data centers and the Trump-Bibi-Iran War are currently those targets seen as the primary driver of high prices,
Seen? They are the primary driver of high prices.
I could argue that underinvestment in electrification and renewables are the true cause of price inflation from these two processes. If we electrified like China, there would not be the impact we see.
> I could argue that underinvestment in electrification and renewables are the true cause of price inflation
And I'll argue that yours is a rather uninformed and illogical statement. Inflation is the result of the opposite of underinvestment, trying to cure inflation with more investment is like trying to put out fires with gasoline.
The whole logic of raising interest rates is based on reducing the gasoline but that doesn't work for the present kinetic and AI wars which are fueled regardless of cost - interest or otherwise. There's your explanation for the persistent inflation.
> If we electrified like China, there would not be the impact we see.
Chinese consumer inflation is below 1.3% Maybe they know something about not treating everything as a war?