The Moral Imperative to Oppose AI Data Centers
AI Data Centers Are A Rake Democrats Can’t Wait To Step On.
In 2024, Democrats could not find the moral position on the genocide in Gaza. The Zionist powers entrenched within the party won out over popular opinion, and this was a bad call. The commitment to not commenting on the obvious genocide deflated the energy the Harris campaign should have been able to use to deliver the presidency. Unfortunately, this trickled down to lower races as well, and we are all living with the consequences. (It’s not “relitigating 2024 thinkpiece #286,000,000,” I am begging that we learn from our mistakes.)
As Marc Lamont Hill points out in the book Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics, “The decision to support the rights of Palestinians as equal to those of Israelis is not a complicated one. It is not necessary to engage in state-building, as it is in Somalia, or end civil war, as in Syria, or even resolve a regional conflict as in Yemen. For Palestinians, Americans and Europeans could support the simple principle of equal rights[…] Perhaps this is why BDS evokes such a visceral defensive response… it reminds us all too clearly that support for equal rights would be easy enough for us as citizens to act upon.”
It would have cost Democrats very little. They could have just done it. Why not let a Palestinian person speak at the DNC? Recently Rahm Emmanuel had some mild criticism of Israel, and when THAT guy is willing to walk back support for Israel even a little, it shows that the party itself is shifting. To be sure, they are dragging their asses like Paul Rudd cleaning up the kitchen in Wet Hot American Summer, but only after a relentless push from dedicated pro-Palestinian organizers and groups like Jewish Voices For Peace.
In 2026, another issue threatens to cause a similar rift between popular demand and the corporate virus infecting the Democratic Party. The opposition to AI data center construction is more than an issue that is incredibly popular and winning bipartisan support across the country; it is a moral imperative.
A Moral Imperative
Like Palestine, there are different ways to approach this issue, but I like the way Fran Hong, David Liners, and other socialists have addressed it. A one-year moratorium seems wise. Right now, the companies scrambling to get the AI data centers built and have the software implemented are all trying to get it done RIGHT NOW before regulation can limit their profits.
Make no mistake: regulation is coming. It is a damnation of how dysfunctional our state government is that we have been unable to pass the legislation we desperately need. Nationally, if we had a president at all interested in governing, then this would already be coming together. Our ability to protect people and the environment is hamstrung by pro-corporate powers, and the ability to meaningfully oppose those powers is unfortunately limited, even for politicians.
The consequences of these data centers are expansive. The concerns for our fresh water supply is well documented, though frustratingly not motivating for the public. There is also a financial impact. These data centers will make the tech sector rich as hell, while also enriching electrical utility companies in the process. That money doesn’t come from nowhere, it comes from us! Our electricity bills are already going up and they will continue to! (I am writing this while Wisconsin is experiencing record-breaking dangerous air quality due to Minnesotan and Canadian wildfires, and after a week under a heat dome – our energy bills will be astronomical).
Which is why opposition to data centers is important! Also, it’s easy. Also, there is backlash against Democrats who are not sufficiently opposing them, like Gretchen Whitmer. I have gone to bat for Whitmer before – under her administration, Michigan Democrats are beating back MAGA extremism with a baseball bat, and Michiganders have mostly benefited. But greenlighting all of these data centers in the face of public backlash is a massive breakdown in trust. She was someone I assumed would be in the running for president, but now her own state hates her.
The Palestine comparisons aren’t just lefty posturing. The two issues are similar in that I don’t think someone needs to have a fully formed platform, they just need to be willing to say no!
This should be a slam fucking dunk.
The Slam Fucking Dunk
I am resisting comparing trans issues as the issue that dominated the 2022 election cycle because the timeline isn’t quite right – I feel like the resurgence of freak-shit, pedophilic children’s sports debates is more of a 2023 thing, furthermore I don’t need to try and be so fucking cute with all the time! But it does give a good roadmap for issues like Palestine and data centers, the kind of victory that need not be of legislation, but simply of morals.
This is Joe Biden, when asked how many genders there are, saying “at least three.” I don’t need the old man to explain gender theory, he nailed it! The right got pissy and ruined the year 2023, but it was the right thing for Biden to do and it helped give visibility to trans people. The backlash to trans acceptance by Democrats was mostly ineffective, and made Republicans double down and look like a bunch of freaks and sex pests. The trans shit also fried a few people’s brains – like JK Rowling’s – but those alliances were always tenuous at best.
The benefit to Joe Biden’s stance was not that Democrats everywhere were to be trusted on trans issues, but at least Joe Biden was. He seemed like he meant it when he tried to be inclusive of trans people. It made me think he was possibly able to care as much about other things I cared about.
Obviously, Joe Biden jettisoned that trust by never letting go of his Netanyahu bear hug. Democrats should have learned that Zionism damages your credibility on basically every other issue as well. And for that matter it makes you look too calculated, too risk averse. If Democrats take the wrong stance on data centers, it is going to break people’s trust even more.
In two years, I’m sure Democrats will be pumped to oppose AI – but they will have missed the moment. While it is never too late to get on the humanity side of an issue, there are human consequences to every delay, as evidenced in the Palestinian suffering that could have been avoided.
