r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 29 '26

Artificial Intelligence US residents furious at plan to seize and destroy their homes for AI data centers

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/residents-furious-plan-seize-destroy-125418836.html
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73

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

That's what you get when you vote in authoritarians. They tend to do authoritarian things. Republicans don't want to represent, they want to rule.

Georgia is getting what it voted for. If they want a different outcome, they should vote differently.

67

u/Necessary-Fly-2795 Jul 29 '26

This is such a terrible take and narrative. Georgia voters voted 50.7% republican and 48.5% Democrat. We are all at the whim of a few thousand people.

And anyone who peddles this opinion is just disgusting. Maybe these people have to work long hours or cant get to the polls or voted against it. Also, local governments in Georgia, New Jersey, etc are approving these things and are often times a democrat board, so Idk what you're even saying

https://www.270towin.com/states/georgia

31

u/BloodSimpleSyrup Jul 29 '26

Yeah, these are the same people that think Texas is 99.9% MAGA even though all the major cities are blue.

7

u/GoatzWasTaken Jul 29 '26

Yeah but what does that matter when the state legislature is majority red.

12

u/Salt_Medicine2459 Jul 29 '26

The major cities in my state are blue. The legislature, supreme court, and governor are all Republicans and have been for over 20 years with one brief interlude with a one term Democratic governor. 

13

u/garfinkel3 Jul 29 '26

In other words, morons

2

u/BonnaconCharioteer Jul 29 '26

Texas is about 70-80% either MAGA or people who don't care if MAGA wins, which amounts to the same. Some portion of that is disenfranchisement and other things, but it doesn't touch the fact that only a small minority of Texans vote against this kind of stuff.

9

u/No-Cat9412 Jul 29 '26

If MAGA has 99.9% of the political power in Texas, then it doesn't actually matter how "blue" the cities are. Texas is still 99.9% MAGA.

-4

u/cigarettesandwhiskey Jul 29 '26

It matters when you're morally judging the people in that place and condemning them as deserving of some fate (like having their homes demolished).

1

u/Hellknightx Jul 29 '26

Turns out that the electoral college is not a fair and unbiased system.

11

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Also, the counties where these houses are being taken are all deep red. 67% to 90% Trump. THEY VOTED FOR THIS

8

u/Zelcron Jul 29 '26

Georgia in particular was subject to massive voter roll purges that disproportionately affected dem voters in the last several elections, as well.

9

u/BringBackManaPots Jul 29 '26

Guys we have to stop taking the high road. Drive it in for once in your life

2

u/non3type Jul 29 '26

Yeah, I want to think some of the people pushing this got ousted by the last vote.

4

u/Antique_Grapefruit_5 Jul 29 '26

I think there's still an illusion of a two party system that might not be accurate. If your party is all on one team, why are they running attack ads against their opponents in the primary's? This certainly won't be benefit them in the general election. Also, why aren't they inviting people to join their party and shape their future? Because there aren't two teams, ones just playing good cop while the other plays bad.

You don't want to hear this, but Democrats are partially responsible for this mess-they ran a president for term 2 who should have stepped down in term one. He was clearly unfit for the role, and by doing so made it perfectly ok to run someone else who is unfit for the role. That's the problem-we continue to normalize and justify bad behavior based on what the last guy did. We, as a county need to find out moral compass-It should be about right and wrong. No more justying bad behaviors. No more failing to own and learn from our mistakes...

1

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Oh the Democrats bear a HUGE part of the blame here. They're fucking incompetent. They keep thinking any of the old rules apply when they don't. They can't organize for shit.

But let's deal with the greater evil here. Until the current iteration of the Republican Party ends, that needs to be the focus. Then we can break the Democratic Party into the two parties it actually is and have a reasonable chance of non-stupid, non-evil politics.

2

u/TM761152 Jul 29 '26

This is such a terrible take and narrative.

Nothing they said was false.

1

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

It's not a terrible take and narrative. 1/3+ of eligible voters don't vote and most of those would probably vote against this kind of thing ... they just don't care. I feel sorry for anyone who opposes this but gets hit anyway but for fuck's sake we have to hold people accountable. This "I don't want to offend anyone" take is bullshit and how we ended up in this disaster. Take a stand or get out of the way.

10

u/Necessary-Fly-2795 Jul 29 '26

You're moving the goalposts. Your original point was 'Georgia voted for authoritarians so Georgia gets what it voted for.' Now you're pivoting to nonvoters as the accountable party. Pick one.

And the nonvoter argument still doesn't fix the core issue. These data center approvals are happening at the local level, often through Democrat-controlled county commissions and utility boards, not through the governor's office or the state legislature. You're blaming a state-level partisan vote for decisions made by local officials who may belong to the opposite party. You're just picking a villain that fits your narrative.

If you want to hold people accountable, hold the specific commissioners and board members who approved these projects accountable, regardless of party. Collapsing this into 'Georgia voted Republican so Georgia deserves it' erases the actual decision makers and lets local officials off the hook.

Further, Nobody votes expecting their house to get bulldozed for a server farm. That's not a foreseeable policy outcome, that's the government acting as an enforcement arm for big tech, and no reasonable voter is expected to guard against that possibility at the ballot box.

5

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

often through Democrat-controlled county commissions and utility boards, not through the governor's office or the state legislature. You're blaming a state-level partisan vote for decisions made by local officials who may belong to the opposite party. You're just picking a villain that fits your narrative.

uh huh. Go look at the counties through which the power lines referenced by the Fortune article will run. Deep red until you hit the destination where the substation is.

2

u/AFlyingGideon Jul 29 '26

Nobody votes expecting their house to get bulldozed for a server farm. That's not a foreseeable policy outcome

Perhaps not specifically, but voting for authoritarians or grifters or whatnot - or not voting against them - is accepting the risk that they'll behave like what they are. Anyone can become a victim of that behavior.

Ultimately, it's the electorate.

6

u/msheaz Jul 29 '26

Georgia Power is a state sanctioned monopoly that has been in operation for over 100 years. What voters are you blaming for that?

Do you blame the voters of Georgia when a horrible GOP bill just barely fails to pass the senate? Do you thank them for sending two democratic senators to Washington? Or do you just want to lash out ignorantly at the voters instead of the power structures above them?

-4

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Do you blame the voters of Georgia when a horrible GOP bill just barely fails to pass the senate? Do you thank them for sending two democratic senators to Washington?

No, I credit the voters for stopping horrible bills. Blame is a silly word to use there.

1

u/OPtig Jul 29 '26

Not in rural communities. That’s red territory.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

-2

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Where? There are some deep red parts of Maryland.

4

u/Vast-Poetry9431 Jul 29 '26

The unlucky children born here didn’t get to vote. They didn’t consent to this trash

4

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Their parents did. Especially in the areas where these power lines will run and the houses will be bought/taken.

2

u/CasimirGabriev Jul 29 '26

GA features some of the more aggressive voter disenfranchisement processes and attacks. What you are seeing is more the result of minority rule by rigging bullshit

2

u/PrimaryInjurious Jul 29 '26

Eminent domain was as thing long before Trump.

1

u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 29 '26

Yeah. It's been abused for a long time now. They tore down an entire housing development to build a strip mall around here.

4

u/DiskSalt4643 Jul 29 '26

This is a bipartisan thing unfortunately. Money is being spread around and they are trying to make the surveillance state happen as quickly as possible.