Bad Reasons and Worse Reasons to Hate Data Centers

Politics It's not existential dread about the internet. Robby Soave | 8.20.2026 4:40 PM 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. You are reading Free Media from Robby Soave and Reason. Get more of Robby's on-the-media, disinformation, and free speech coverage. 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