this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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Fuck AI
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Here in Springfield IL we just had a city meeting.
4 hours long. They let anyone talk who wanted to. And you could even go twice (with 2 min limits ).
I really respected that.
Most counsel is Republican. Which is concerning.
We did manage to get them to table the vote after it came to light that the water they were planning on using is slated to come from a local lake that is already in the deficit (waterly lake).
And that they filed the wrong zoning. They filed it as agriculture.
But want to hear something super shitty. ?
About 1/5 of the people there ,(packed house with people standing) were from local unions in support of the data center.
These data center fuckers have been going to local unions and telling them how it's going to give them all jobs and all this b.s.
And a lot of speakers mentioned how low it was for the billionaire companies to turn our union members against their own communities.
There was only like 5 of them that spoke and they honestly sounded like selfish pricks.
One guy said the centers were going up rather we liked it or not so why not get the money.
Another said he didn't care if AI made other people lose their jobs because his job was more important.
Another idiot , in response to an example of a previous company who left asbestos that needed cleaned up, that the city had to pay for said "I worked on that clean up and it was good money".
Yeah. Really did not help their image. I was super disappointed in them.
They really think these data center companies are their buddy.
Also. Sangamon county can't provide the power they need. So they were planning on putting like 50 diesel generators that would run 24/7.
I can't believe the council members were ready to allow this.
Someone there also said the company had been threatening to sue council members if they didn't pass it. The speaker reminder them that we would sue them if they did. And investigate their finances like others are doing already in other cities with these awful data centers.
Not a data center, but this sounds very reminiscent of a fight I was in the middle of in 2024-2025. If you've heard of Coney Island, a vulture capitalist named Thor Equities was seeking to demolish the heart of it to build a casino, at the same time as two other casino proposals in NYC. Naturally, they pissed off entire artist communities. We railed against it, we attended every 4 hour community hearing, and we were eventually able to convince them to vote against it.
But at the same time, Thor Equities was literally bussing in people and paying them to feign support for the casino. They would show up in coach busses with matching tshirts and talk endlessly about the magical "job creation". It felt like an episode of Parks and Rec
It's dystopian that they can do this shit.
...I looked up Sangamon county, and it seems like the perfect place to build a data center. It's in the middle of nowhere and it's economy is non-existent. Pretty much the only thing it has is a lot of flat land.
Note: Sorry if I violated the rules with this comment. I didn't see what sub I was posting in.
Well the state capitol is here. Lincoln is buried here.
But yeah it's definitely rural around Springfield so that probably is why it's being targeted. Plus we have a power plant. Although it is coal powered.
We definitely don't need any extra pollution. And the farm land is being used for farming.
You would have thought the Union guys might have asked how many jobs the data center was going to create. As from what I can see it's a handful.
They were throwing around "500" for 5-6 years.
But as someone else pointed out in the meeting. The contract doesn't say they will guarantee hiring anyone local nor any specific number.
And that the only reason they are floating the idea of using union workers in the first place is for the tax breaks.
They get like a 20 year tax break from using union to build.
Going SUPER LOCAL with our politics is the only way to fuck these data centers up ... every county in the US should be voting these things down
they really must be desperate if they need to hire some propaganda people for them.
Yeah the company advocate (or whatever they are called) also started off his presentation with a prayer to God. Asked everyone to bow their head in prayer and then do the pledge of alligence together.
Prayer was about some b.s and getting the data center made to give jobs to everyone.
Honestly it took me a minute to realize what he was going on about and then I realized he was leading a prayer. As an atheist and someone who believes religion should not be in politics, I was angered by this.
Like we are all a bunch of hillbilly bumpkins. And we will go along with them as long as the company pretends to be a Christian company.
I know one of the community speakers called them out on the manipulation tactics.
A lot of people there were very vocal in their opposition. I think over 100 people got up and talked.
There was even two high schoolers.