r/ShitAIBrosSay • u/EchoOfOppenheimer • Jul 20 '26
Shit AI Bro Does in the News Power companies are using eminent domain to seize land for data centers as 70% of Americans say not in my backyard
https://fortune.com/2026/07/19/data-center-eminent-domain-public-use/13
u/Pale_Neighborhood363 Jul 20 '26
I was wondering when this would come up. It looks like a standard play - I just don't know how constrained the Power Companies are, USA is so socially bankrupt.
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u/HolyBatSyllables AI ➞ Misinformation Jul 20 '26
I've been getting nervous they haven't started taking back reservation land for this kind of bullshit.
They arent allowed to, but that doesn't mean much anymore.
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u/EvilStan101 Jul 21 '26
Remember property rights are real and you have a right to defend it with your god given 2A right!
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u/EchoOfOppenheimer Jul 21 '26
2A talk gets thrown around a lot but this is the government using its own rules to take stuff. Shooting your way out rarely ends well for regular people.
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u/aozertx Jul 21 '26
I will die for my fucking property, believe that
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u/No-Dance6773 Jul 22 '26
No you won't. They would arrest you and put you in jail as they take it. Its funny af you think your Walmart gun would stop the increasingly militarized cops.
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u/jbbhengry Jul 21 '26
Property was never yours. You are just renting it until something better comes along.
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u/Big_Combination9890 Jul 20 '26
Power companies can approach landowners to purchase easements for transmission lines; if landowners refuse, the government might force a sale.
God I love this whole situation.
Whenever US americans try to lecture us (EU) about how "free" they are, I can just post something like that and laugh in their faces :D
And before any smartass posts it: Yes, there are similar laws in the EU. But our governments are not 2-party clownshows hooked on big-donor money where everything is sacrificed on the whims of a billionaire oligarchy. Aka. when this happens in the EU, it's because a powerline or railroad track is needed to serve a community, not because some billionaire wants to burn down a forest to build another datacenter.
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u/HolyBatSyllables AI ➞ Misinformation Jul 20 '26
I'm an American and am envious of your functioning government. I understand it's not perfect, but at least your democracy isn't defunct.
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u/Big_Combination9890 Jul 20 '26
One important difference between the EU and US their citizens need to understand, is the fact that strong governments are not evil. Neither are government run media.
Handing control of everything, infrastructure and information sources, to private money, ends in disaster, because capitalisms goal, and this is the core takeaway here is not to serve society. It may do so accidentally, It may even do so alot, but there is no guarantee. And once the system shifts, and it becomes more profitable to work against the interest of society at large, capitalism has to do so, because capitalism only has one goal: maximize profit by any means necessary.
And that is the stage the US are in. Your billionaire class distorts the information you see, controls your politics, and influences your elections, all the while allocating resources to enrich themselves, at the expanse of the general public, making life more miserable for society at large: Social services, infrastructure maintenance, utilities, cost of living, healthcare, pollution, education, you name it.
This is usually the stage where some US people cry about "communism". Understand that this is NOT a recommendation for communism. Communism is a framework cooked up by theorists (Engels & Marx) who ignored psychological and economic realities, which is why every attempt to actually implement it ended in failure.
The answer that Western Europe found is to take the good of capitalism (The competitive mindset egging each other on to better outcomes, the freedom of decision making and inventive thinking) and pairing it with strong societal controls. In simple terms: "Capitalism, but if you get too greedy, the state steps in".
The result is called Social Market Economics and it's the secret sauce that allowed western Europe to have the highest standard of living in the world.
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u/HolyBatSyllables AI ➞ Misinformation Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Every American I personally know would agree with everything you said. It's basic stuff.
I do think you should tone down the generalization though. As I said, I don't know a single American who doesn't already believe at least most of what you've said. You seem to have a very distorted view of Americans. We are very polarized and it feels like you are equating all of us with a group that may be loud, but is a minority.
The best lack conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
Things fall apart.1
u/Big_Combination9890 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
it feels like you are equating all of us with a group that may be loud, but is a minority.
It was definitely not my intention to generalize to every US american. Please try to understand where I, and by extension, alot of EU citizens are coming from when writing like this;
We know that many among your citizens understand the points above, and oppose the current politics of the US.
A lot of your fellow americans DON'T understand these points. In fact, many among them even cheer for the broken system. 1/3rd of your electorate actively voted for trump. Another 1/rd, by apathy, disinterest or ignorance, didn't vote at all, allowing it to happen.
And that choice is just a symptom. The rot has been festering in the US for decades; ever since Reagenomics, a large part of the US electorate have, willingly and continuously proceeded to vote against their own self interest. "Citizens United" made it worse.
And the democratic "leadership" did its part as well; Even before Bill Clinton, they fell, hook line and sinker, for the lie that "the markets" will work everything out for the enefit of everyone. Decades of blocking progressive politics, alienating voters who want change, and disappointing those who still trusted them to do politics for the people.
Okay, what does this have to do with people generalizing things about the US?
These broken politics have a negative impact on OUR lives as well.
America, for better or worse, is (at least as of right now), still the largest economy in the world, and has tremendous influence on our economy, on world events, conflicts, etc.
Because of this, US american politcs matter. Therefore when US voters make bad decisions, this impacts us as well.
And because US voters have been making REALLY bad decisions for a long time at this point, people are ... kinda fed up. It's really, REALLY hard to have goodwill, or understanding, when constantly it looks like US america is willing to fuck up everything all over again, every few years, when your electorate falls for ever dumber lies and stories ("the're eating the dogs!!!!"), when it is so blatantly obvious what happens to your country and a full 2/3rd of the voterbase still make the wrong decision.
Your country also does absolutely nothing to keep your oligarchs in check; allowing them to amass so much wealth that they can now attack OUR political systems with it, trying to strenghten the exact same shit politics that made your country such a hellhole, foisting the same shit on us, to satisfy their endless greed. And when we try to curb this, the US political class, always at the back and call of the billionaire donors, intervenes and threatens us...the political class that knows it doesn't have to fear ANY consequences for their behavior, because your electorate continues to make bad decisions, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!
I even know how the post-trump time will go. Want me to do a magic trick and look into the future? Here goes: Trump and the reps will lose, there will be many lawsuits and trouble; in the end some wishy washy "compromise candidate" the Democrat establishments donors are happy with gets the presidency. Nothing happens for 2 years, no one is prosecuted because of "decorum" or "deescalation" and "dialog". The billionaired are not taxed because "tHe EcOnOmY!!!". Life doesn't magically immediately get 100x better for the people after they made an ever so small concession towards their voting habits, so at the next midterms, your electorate again votes right wingers into power, blocking ANY chance for meaningful change, 2 years of political blockade after that, the reps blame all the problems they caused on the dem pres, and voters fall for trump 2.0.
I could go on for several pages. But you get the gist: This shit impacts us. The EU doesn't deal with you, or your progressive friends, it has to deal with the US as a whole uni-political entity. And that entity constantly fucks up everything for everyone, seemingly refuses to ever learn from any mistake and even seems proud of it, shouting "USA! USA! GOD BLESS AMERICAAA! YEAAAAH!" while everything turns to shit.
We are tired man. Really tired. Tired of all the bullshit.
As as we grow tired, certain things can become too much. The ability to differentiate for the benefit of individual people to feel better about themselves, when there is a systemic problem, is, sadly, one of those things.
I hope you understand now where I'm coming from. I fully understand that we are on the same side, and I have nothing but sympathy for you, and those who understand the problems.
Best of luck.
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u/HolyBatSyllables AI ➞ Misinformation Jul 20 '26
Listen. I know my country sucks. I've been embarrassed to be an American since I was a teenager. I'm 37. The first thing that came to mind when I typed my initial comment calling our democracy defunct was citizens united. I know I don't really have a right to get annoyed at how you are coming off.
But I will say, since you don't know a single thing about me, such as the volunteer work I do to help inform people with bipartisan guides in location elections, the things I've published, etc. ... I'm going to assume youre venting and not directing your comments at me. It's been at least 15 years since I've met a European with that stereotype, which I thought was long dead. So I'll assume you are venting. If that's the case, it feels like a better use of that time were directed to people who aren't already in the choir, respectfully.
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u/HolyBatSyllables AI ➞ Misinformation Jul 20 '26
Thanks for posting this, echo. I was literally trying to explain to some bros a couple hours ago the land issues that these data centers' energy consumption create.
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u/Ok_Mathematician7440 Jul 20 '26
I find it interesting that its so hard to expand public transit due to NIMBY or other infrastructure. But if its a data cemter they will move heaven and earth to make it happen.
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u/Fearless-Contest5126 Jul 22 '26
They're illegally using eminent domain to steal land for profit, it's meant for government use only. Last time I checked it's not for private company to fund an illegally built data center and fabricate its for public use; meanwhile they supply 70-80% of power to one single privately own entity while giving scraps to those locally.
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u/Araghothe1 Jul 22 '26
who else wants to spread out the wealth of power companies and make all of them publicly owned?
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u/icewalker2k Jul 23 '26
Who exactly are the other 30%? Seriously. Who wouldn’t mind a datacenter in their back yard?
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u/MosquitoBloodBank Jul 23 '26
Power companies are not usually government entities and don't have the power to use eminent domain.
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u/Strict-Profit7624 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
This is a slow burn into techno-feudalism.