Politics

Bad Reasons and Worse Reasons to Hate Data Centers

It's not existential dread about the internet.

Robby Soave | 8.20.2026 4:40 PM

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Data center (Svitlanah/Envato)

It's a tough time to be a data center. These buildings—which to be clear, are a vital part of the modern tech-based economy and will only grow in importance as the AI boom continues—have suffered a complete collapse in overall public support.

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Falling approval for data centers is rapid and sudden. A poll from Heatmap News found significant erosion over the course of the last year.

"It's a swift, massive shift in U.S. public opinion on a scale that I wouldn't have once thought possible," writes Robinson Meyer of Heatmap.

This shift is happening in spite of the fact that data centers are economic boons to their neighbors. They generate so much money for Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, that the local government was able to cut everybody else's........

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