🧩 BND Motif Index · M364
Data center panic
Giant data centers are being forced on communities, driving up power bills and feeding surveillance, while politicians cheer them on.
📜 Plots🗂️ Big business🗂️ Surveillance and privacy
- 19claims filed under it
- 5left shows it came up on
- 4center shows it came up on
- 4claims retold online
- 1fact-checker
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
⤵️ under it: 🧩 Thirsty data centers
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Corporate accountability 🧩 Corporate exploitation 🧩 In this economy?
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 5
🎙️ CNN 5 Things 🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ The Majority Report (podcast) 🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ Today, Explained
🐘 right 0
🦗 none of our right shows, so far
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-24 “Greg Abbott does the bidding of the world's biggest moneyed interests by allowing data centers to descend on rural Texas.”
🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ The Daily (NYT) - 2026-10-22 “Most Americans oppose the construction of new data centers in the United States.”
🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-22 “Most Americans oppose the construction of new data centers in the U.S. and their own communities.”
🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-21 “Data centers are a source of corruption, war risks, and political exploitation.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-16 “Data centers have negative impacts on energy usage, water usage, and noise levels.”
🎙️ Today, Explained 🎙️ BBC Global News Podcast 🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-14 “People across the US are opposing the construction of data centers in their communities.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “Amazon's $538,000 in donations to Labor and the Liberals, some routed through the Labor Business Forum so they aren't counted as political donations, bought it access to ministers: the major parties have been bought.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-12 “Data center developments in Arizona make neighborhoods less livable by producing noise, heat, and consuming excessive water.”
🎙️ Today, Explained 🎙️ BBC Global News Podcast 🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-11 “Most Americans dislike the idea of data centers.”
🎙️ CNN 5 Things - 2026-10-09 “The development of AI and data centers causes significant environmental and social harm, such as increased emissions and water usage.”
🎙️ Breaking Points 🎙️ The Majority Report (podcast) 🎙️ 1A (WAMU/NPR) - 2026-10-09 “AI technology could potentially result in massive job losses or catastrophic systemic failures.”
🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-07 “Data centres are harmful to the environment and communities due to their high energy and water use, and require regulation and community consent.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-05 “Data centers are causing electricity prices to rise for local residents because they place massive demands on the power grid.”
🎙️ The Majority Report (podcast) - 2026-09-26 “Husted is pro-data centers.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
- 2026-09-26 “Data centers are very large.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
- 2026-09-26 “Vivek Romaswamy supports data centers which will lead to a surveillance state.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
- 2026-09-26 “Husted's main goal is to continue building data centers everywhere.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
- 2026-09-23 “Sen. Jon Husted led the push to bring data centers to Ohio and gave billions of tax dollars to make it happen.” 🔎 PolitiFact
- 2026-09-12 “Voters believe data centers and facial recognition cameras are invasive and threaten privacy.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
M364 · first seen 2026-10-05 · last 2026-10-24 · what this is · how the index works