And Now, MAGA—and MTG, Even!—Have Joined the Anti–Data Center Movement

Saturday brings a national day of protest against data centers. And no, it’s not led by the Democratic Socialists of America.

The mass mobilization against data centers is coming to a boil this week, and the tech aristocracy is turning paranoid. No wonder: The AI zealots of Silicon Valley have staked their souls on President Trump’s commitment to blitz-scaling these rural facilities.

On Tuesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order imposing a yearlong statewide moratorium on data-center construction. This panics the AI overlords. If a commie-style ban can make it in pro-business New York, it can make it anywhere.

“The real worry in the industry isn’t New York specifically, it is the precedent,” said Joseph Hoefer, a key AI lobbyist, about the response of Silicon Valley to Hochul’s move. “The concern is real, and it moved fast.”

And then there’s the mounting popular disgust with facilities that guzzle water and power from rural communities, giving nothing back.

“Data centers—why would you want that?” Tucker Carlson said recently on a podcast. “Why are you telling me all of the bad things that are going to happen, not telling me really any of the good things, and then telling me that it’s inevitable and I can’t have electricity or water because the machines need it?”

Indeed. We know that data centers drain water reserves and strain electrical grids. But their round-the-clock “brute force” lighting also eliminates dark nights, wreaking havoc on the circadian rhythms of humans and animals.

As for air pollution, according to a recent study, just one data center in Northern Virginia pumps out........

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