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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2393 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 23, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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To what extent is anti-data center pushing big tech into further GOP alignment?

Not a whole lot, I would think. All of the hard-core Republicans in my sphere are loudly or quietly anti-data center. It seems to be a winning issue with every flavor of populist.

IIRC republicans are split while dems and independents are strongly opposed, per the most recent data. Republicans are also more accommodating to data centers when in power.

I wonder what is the true nature of the Democrat opposition, as a party - do they want the tech bros to bend the knee, hire unionized trans-minority illegal immigrant workers and everything will be ok (as long as they pay the danegeld consistently) or do they want the whole industry to just go away (likely, to China), out of sight, out of mind - as many other industries did? I mean, the hippie wing definitely wants the latter, for them bread appears on the shelves of the supermarket by government magic, but what is the established position here?

I don’t know. I do know that the unions are very upset about the Dem position on data centers.

In terms of actual Democratic politicians, I'd guess that the true nature of their opposition is that opposing it makes them more popular among people who they consider it important to be popular to (i.e. their electorate and also political insiders). As for why it's popular among those people, I don't think it's a phenomenon unique or even unusual to the Democratic party: the true nature of their opposition is that their opposition is yet another dimension by which they get to moralize to others in a way that makes them feel superior. Tech bros have been deeply unpopular among Democrats for close to the last decade, the multiple real downsides and predicted future downsides to AI has made tech bros even less popular, and tech bros tend to have a much more liberal notion of morality than what much of the Democratic base is comfortable with, and so tech bros and their tentacles, in the form of data centers, make for good targets.

I know exactly one person in real life who has loudly and repeatedly claimed to be pro data center this year.

He drove out to Memphis to record a video about how great Colossus was going to be for the community. He never distributed the video and he hasn't publicly spoken out in favor of them since.

Why? Did it turn out Colossus was not so great, or was he told "listen do this and it'll ruin your career"?

I haven't asked, but he's a software developer who is trying to be an influencer. I'm assuming it was either the former or it just turned out that producing the content was entirely too much work.

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