Data Center Opposition: A Rare Issue Uniting Americans Across the Political Divide | 60 Minutes
In a world increasingly driven by technology and artificial intelligence, the proliferation of data centers has sparked significant controversy across the United States. As tech companies race to enhance their AI capabilities, communities are pushing back against the rapid expansion of these facilities, voicing concerns over environmental impact and change to local landscapes.
This week on “60 Minutes,” we delve into this rarely unifying issue that transcends political affiliations, revealing how residents from both sides of the aisle are coming together in opposition. From rising energy consumption to potential disruptions in neighborhoods, the concerns are not just specific to one group but resonate with a vast spectrum of citizens.
Join us as we explore the complexities behind the data center boom and the grassroots movements emerging in response. With over five decades of investigative journalism, “60 Minutes” continues to bring compelling stories that matter to the American public.
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Video “Data center opposition a rare issue uniting Americans across the political divide | 60 Minutes” was uploaded on 09/21/2026 to Youtube Channel 60 Minutes





































why masks?
The Illuminati, the CIA, and governments—those are "Old World" controllers. Big Tech are the controllers of the "New World." Their devices are in the pockets of 80% of the world population. They pacify you with social media as power to everyday people. And pay you for likes and view counts. All while knowing your location. What food you like, the cloths you shop, and so on. When this new Gen starts to see their devices as animals caged in a big fenced-in yard, it will be too late. Not trying to scare anyone, just asking you to think about it before you give Big Tech the ok to do whatever they please!!THINK 🤔
They will consume all of our drinking water. What about the radio frequencies from all those servers? How they mess up birds and animals
I don't understand.
They don't want data centres near the residences so tech companies want to build them in the rural areas and then the ranchers also don't want them there.
I guess you just have to build them in China.
Let the data centers pay there own electricity
If data centers and AI creat the cure for incurable diseases, a free unlimited power source, a solution for food availability and costs or even world peace it will be monetized. In what world or future with corporate America just some become so charitable? Enjoy being locked into a new system.
They lie about the water usage onsite and offsite
To generate electricity for these beasts spikes water usage by 11 to 25 millions that's not including the millions of gallons of water to make chipsets that are obsolete or diminished within 3 years
Now the dumping of those chips is a whole other problem
It's time to stop Artificial Intelligence period
To anyone who thinks they don't support data centers. It’s an inescapable reality. simply participating in modern society is enough.
Nearly every kind of digital information we create or depend on flows through data-center infrastructure: photos, videos, text messages, email, social media, cloud backups, streaming movies and music, gaming, banking, credit card transactions, stock trades, payment processing, online shopping, shipping, medical records, X-rays, prescriptions, insurance, government records, taxes, DMV records, court records, payroll, accounting, business contracts, customer databases, school records, scientific research, weather models, GPS, airline reservations, traffic systems, logistics, smart-home devices, security cameras, connected vehicles, search engines, websites, telecommunications, power-grid systems, AI models, AI training, AI queries, recommendation algorithms, voice recognition, image generation, cybersecurity logs, and countless backups, caches, copies, and disaster-recovery systems.
You don’t have to work in technology or AI to contribute to data-center demand. If you use a smartphone, stream a video, send an email, use a bank, visit a hospital, shop online, use GPS, pay taxes, play a game, store a photo, use social media, or interact with almost any modern institution, you are using the infrastructure.
F’n everything in the modern technological world touches data.
Modern society has become a massive data-generating machine, and we all helped create it. Data centers aren’t being built in isolation from society. They are being built because society increasingly demands what they provide.
We are entering an enormous technological and energy expansion that is going to restructure industries, infrastructure, economies, and everyday life. Fighting the existence of that transition won’t stop it.
It's an AI Revolution, let that really sink in. Agentic ai and automated robotics will become the most consequential technological shift humanity has ever experienced because, unlike previous general-purpose technologies, it directly targets cognitive work itself.
When you put AI in everything and then say you need more data centers to support it, even though no one asked for it, the opposition makes sense. Ai is cool, but not enough to disturb houses and where people live.
Data centers are just warehouses, sure they are ugly, but so are warehouses.
So rural America is being regentrified?🤔
Guess whos coming to dinner
One Big Beautiful Bill
Project 2025 anyone?
With increasing climate change and increasing water scarcity we should be doing something about how much water is wasted on golf courses as well. To say we’re having water supply problems so let’s keep adding more and more unnecessary uses of water because we already have some other wasteful uses of water. 🤦🏼♀️
Down with data centers!
WE SHOULD STOP THIS COMPLETELY PERIOD
Basically an infomercial to promote Democrats in the coming election. What more would you expect from 60 Minutes?
60%+ of every party says "not where I live," but at 5:59 it's "we can't lose the AI race." So where do these things actually get built? Is there any location where the people living there say yes?
Artificial intelligence data centers are gobbling up farmland? Then we'll soon have to eat artificial food to survive? Maybe this is the threat to humanity AI poses?
I get that local communities resist industrial changes in their backyards, but this local friction misses the broader economic reality. The United States cannot simply borrow its way into the future; we need high-value exports, and right now, artificial intelligence and advanced computing are our strongest assets. Furthermore, the massive capital being poured into these data centers is exactly what drives the corporate growth that supports everyday 401(k)s and public pensions. If we halt this crucial infrastructure just to preserve pastoral landscapes, we are not merely undermining our own financial security—we are willingly handing the geopolitical and commercial advantage to our global rivals.
These Data Centers are for spying on the citizens of the United States! It will increase the chances that a Dictatorship could control the people in ways that will really inhibit they're freedom and economic slavery becomes a real possibility! And that's the real purpose of these Data Centers! Marine Veteran
How come Trump doesn't have one at Mar A Lago because he's so much into pushing there Centers by telling people that they'll get rich which is a bold faced lie! These Centers need to be torn down! Marine Veteran
We will all be killed off by 2030 data centers part of it!
Just adding my voice to this. I am on the side of THE PEOPLE not the Data center corporation
Food, nature, water, and silence is more important than AI.
There's proof data centers will directly adversely affect your community.
Wisconsin is such a beautiful state. I love to move out there if I have a chance.
❤data centers are a federal law called: The CHIPS and Science Act is a U.S. federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 9, 2022. The act authorizes roughly $280 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States, for which it appropriates $52.7 billion.[1][2][3] The act includes $39 billion in subsidies for chip manufacturing on U.S. soil along with 25% investment tax credits for costs of manufacturing equipment, and $13 billion for semiconductor research and workforce training, with the dual aim of strengthening American supply chain resilience and countering China.[4][5]: 1 It also invests $174 billion in the overall ecosystem of public sector research in science and technology, advancing human spaceflight, quantum computing, materials science, biotechnology, experimental physics, research security, social and ethical considerations, workforce development and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at NASA, NSF, DOE, EDA, and NIST.
Don't get it confused. It is not a demand for "intelligence". It is a demand for control of an increasingly disillusioned and intolerant population.
Articulate to Americans how they benefit from this crap. Because they won't. They don't. AI is not benefiting any of these people right now and it's not going to benefit them in the future. Wake up people. This is rich people trying to steal America from us.
If AI is needed for National Security Add a National AI Infrastructure Tax on Commercial Business Electric bills nationwide (Not Residential bills) !
Old data centers are low power Web servers for YouTube, Netflix.
New AI data centers are High Power, High Heat, High Noise, Not in my Neighborhood!
In Arizona residential customers pay 14 cents per kilowatt, but the Data Center pays 4 cents per kilowatt, outrageous
How much is your AI Data Center paying?
In Arizona preliminary data shows increased temperatures in neighborhoods near AI facilities. Gas Turbines generate heat, noise, IR their Facilities.
AI chips are obsolete after 2 years, Then they will need to build new Servers for the Data Centers, so AI data centers will also be Obsolete every 2 years!
All AI data centers Must be on a Separate Rate that is Only used for AI (Not Residential and Not Commercial) , this is the only way to track their Water and Electric Usage ! Also all Infrastructure being built for Electric, Gas, Water, Electric Generators, Transformers, Transmission Lines must be Paid by the Data Center owner.
there are ~15,000+ golf courses in the US and about ~ 3,100 data centers. Do the math.
this is crazy
Data Centers are the enemy.
Farmers must stop selling their land!
I'm sorry but right or wrong, these data center protesters just sound unhinged and unconnected to reality.
The golf courses and data centers gotta go. These things are for rich folks who don’t care about ANYTHING!
These are not data centers, they're part of Skynet.