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Data-center drama queens risk America’s future — by denying truths of the past

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When American manufacturing was truly coming into its own in the early 20th century, workers sometimes labored 12-hour days for seven days a week and risked life and limb working near dangerous machinery.

Factories blackened the skies of American cities and poisoned waterways. 

Yet some of the same people who insist that the American economy needs to re-industrialize to return to a version of those halcyon days can’t bear the thought of the construction of industrial-scale computing facilities.

They complain that data centers are unsightly and use lots of energy and water.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says data center builders ‘dug their own grave’ with public opinion

Fetterman aligns with Trump on AI push, warns China benefits from US ‘overreaction’

Fast Takes: AOC is a real threat, our dumb anti-data center fight and other commentary

But what do they think major factories are like? 

If today’s standards applied, we almost certainly never would have built manufacturing facilities at scale. 

Industrial buildings may look pretty in Edward Hopper cityscapes, and facilities like the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge complex had a certain majesty as captured by photographers and painters.

Otherwise, factories — especially when clustered together — generally looked more like William Blake’s “dark Satanic mills” than anything the average local zoning commission would want........

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