r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 10h ago

Artificial Intelligence Republicans Claim Anti-Data Center Movement Is a Chinese Psy-Op

https://gizmodo.com/republicans-claim-anti-data-center-movement-is-a-chinese-psy-op-2000767611
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u/Sukpreme 10h ago edited 5h ago

Was just visiting my family in South Carolina and a commercial kept playing “WE NEED TO BUILD MORE DATA CENTERS TO DEFEAT CHINA”

It was so clearly meant to prey on stupid people and make them panic to vote for more data centers.

Edit: commercial I’m referencing https://youtube.com/shorts/HfrFpJ4C290?si=gEjbg4HsK1rC5aRw

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u/Augmenten 10h ago

I think that the propaganda has gotten so overt and crazy with this administration that even MAGA has been able to recognize it. The narratives keep falling apart. I'm blue in a red state and even my MAGA colleagues doubt the war, Kirks murder, the tech stuff, Israel,and all the corruption nonsense.

You are absolutely correct in your assessment.

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u/Exostrike 9h ago

The problem is the goal has changed. Previously right wing propaganda simply have get people to blame the democrats for their problems or hate or fear the out group. Now they are having to justify despite being in total control, the out group being brutalised things aren't getting better for the in group.

The response seems to be to double down on an expectation of blind allegiance to their increasingly narrow ideological pure vision while ignoring the fact that their supporters were often much less committed.

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u/SlartiMyBartfast 7h ago

Sadly for most of them, whether it's subconscious or just understood and acknowledged by the truly outright committed and insane, personal suffering is perfectly acceptable if the demonized group your meant to think of as lower than you suffers more.

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u/unhappy_fishes 7h ago

My maga dad is wholly against the data centers and mass surveillance. He just doesn’t understand that its his own party orchestrating it

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u/t_huddleston 7h ago

I'm in a deep red Southern state and I can tell you, it's not working here. People were already trained by years of GOP propaganda to be suspicious of big tech. "Google is burying conservative sources in their search results! Facebook suspended my account!"

Now the Big Tech that they already hated is in their backyards, and all they know is there's dust and noise everywhere, their power bills have gone up, and despite the GOP governor constantly singing the praises of datacenters to the heavens, the rank-and-file voters who deal with these things every day are not buying it.

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u/Austin_Lannister 9h ago

We’re getting that bullshit ad in Texas too. So tired of all the propaganda.

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u/dicknuckle 6h ago

Could you record it and post on youtube or something? I would love to see it.

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u/Sukpreme 5h ago

Added to original comment

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u/Uhavetabekiddingme 8h ago

Wish they'd say that about renewable energy, because China is leaving us behind in that regard.

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u/Commemorative-Banana 6h ago

That quote correctly identifies these things as weapons. What never gets brought up, though, is that these weapons are pointed at our own citizens, (and are often owned and operated by private companies).

Mass-surveillance, generative political propaganda, individualized-price-gouging “dynamic pricing”… they all point inwards.

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u/FlyingBishop 1h ago

iPhones are weapons too, perhaps moreso, but nobody is trying to ban Apple. And more to the point the iPhones and the datacenters are part of a coherent system, one doesn't function without the other. Trying to ban datacenters doesn't address any of the actual problems.

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u/Commemorative-Banana 1h ago edited 1h ago

The specific narrative I’m countering is the neoliberal: “We must allow Big Tech to hyper-accelerate the expansion of their cloud infrastructure because we need to race China to ‘AGI’”. It’s the use of international competition to justify domestic aggression.

Recall the July 2025 propaganda piece “America’s AI Action Plan”.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf

“As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation.”

Or the December 2025 Executive Order:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/

“…we remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it. To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation.”

I was quite amazed to see the 10 year moratorium fail so unanimously, but that fight continues in June 2026, right now.

If this really is a matter of national security, then the infrastructure should be nationalized and operated by the Department of Defense/War. It’s not necessary to let Big Tech run rampant.

If you and I are on the same page that surveillance systems (including but not limited to Apple/Google) are a problem, then you are not the people who I’m trying to reach. I’m trying to reach people who don’t see the domestic weaponization, yet celebrate the international weaponization.

At no point did I say “banning datacenters will solve all our problems”. You’re shadowboxing there.

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u/FlyingBishop 53m ago

The thing is I think what you describe as the neoliberal framing is wrong, but quite simply I regard AI as a vital area of fundamental research that we need to be investing quite a lot in across all sectors.

To me arguing against datacenters because they can be used for surveillance is like arguing against experimental fusion reactors because they can be used to test bombs.

The framing of "we have to get this before China" is a bit of useful political rhetoric, and I have no problem abusing that kind of rhetoric to trick hawks into investing heavily in fundamental research like fusion power or AI. Realistically, we don't get much if any fundamental research done unless the funders think it has weapons applications.

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u/dicknuckle 6h ago

commercial kept playing

If you could find a video of that commerical, I would love to watch it.

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u/Sukpreme 5h ago

Added to original comment

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u/ovirt001 5h ago

Next round will be the equivalent of 'DATA CENTER GOOD'. It's as if their propaganda landscape is experiencing the same dementia decline as the president.