Rising Progressive Populist Revolt Stuns AI Profiteers

There’s a clique of plutocratic, high-tech billionaires who think they’re entitled to turn America’s farmlands and rural communities into their personal domain of predatory AI “data centers.” But a little bookstore in Tulsa, Oklahoma , recently hit those puffed-up elites where they’re most vulnerable: The funny bone. Magic City Books put up a sign that rocketed through the Internet, mocking the fatuous potentates: SUPPORT THESE DATA CENTERS Schools Libraries Bookstores Arrogantly, though, the likes of Amazon, Google, and Meta are frontloading trillions of dollars into creating a new social order managed by super-intelligent bots. This scheme, however, requires them to divert vast amounts of rural land, water, and energy to build and run their Orwellian empires. Yet, breathing the fumes of their own egos, the billionaires actually assumed that locals would welcome this dazzling bot wonderworld. Bad assumption. Even in bastions of rural Republican rule, majorities are saying, “Uh… Hell No!” Indeed, at least 48 data centers were stopped last year by coordinated local opposition , and public fury has largely driven data center developers out of Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, and Wisconsin. In Texas , corrupt governor Greg Abbott openly takes AI cash to push data centers, yet rural counties are rejecting them – and the state’s far-right Republican Party has now voted to oppose building more of them. Even Wall Street money managers are blinking, for there’s growing doubt that investors can get their money back. What’s happening is that the billionaire hucksters have run head-first into the rock-solid political belief that The People get to decide our common destiny, not a handful of techno-scammers. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/

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Rising Progressive Populist Revolt Stuns AI Profiteers is an episode from Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown by Jim Hightower.

This episode is 2:10 long.

This episode was published on Apr 14, 2026.

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