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by icapybara 34 days ago
The internet has disconnected us from reality so much that a lot of people simply don't care. If it supports the party line they are for it.
3 comments

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/08/georgia-data-center...

>The developer, Quality Technology Services, owed nearly $150,000 for using more than 29 million gallons of unaccounted-for water.

>The company said its water consumption was so high last year because of temporary construction-related activities, such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation.

I do find it interesting that the framing is "a data center" used a bunch of water if it really is "manufacturing concrete uses a bunch of water."

Different source and event, same misleading headline as the one mentioned in the parent article.

Contra Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the signal-to-noise ratio on the internet has been terrible.

One seriously wonders if GenX didn't manage to hit a sweet spot for technological availability ahead of everything just going to seed.

I think that largely depends on how you engage with the internet. To continue the metaphor, the internet has an absurdly high noise floor, but it’s easily filtered noise. So if you do that filtering you’re actually left with a pretty high SNR.
Theres major issues that people got really good at figuring out how to make really outsized spikey signals.
I think it's harmful & a turn off to frame what is a big huge general human issue as political, as party line stuff.

There's a ton of reasons that are very very sensible to be very pissed off about AI. People very rarely benefit from human support staff being turned into chatbot AI. The unyielding limited mechanized systems we are forced to interact with suck.

And the billionaires themselves are so loudly advertising that the purpose of these things is to replace people. To obsolete so much labor. When it's so clear they suck, in so many ways. That people are upset is not just "the party line".

I've gone on about AI (even though I personally love it & think it's a miracle, having help in life I never thought I would get). But I don't want to fixate on AI. The sociological effect here, of how people constantly hunt for basically parallel constructions for what they want to believe: that's such a major factor in understanding people and societal forces. I think you're really smashing your ability to think to bits to chalk this up as "the party line". It's such a deeper more interesting force than than.

It again just goes to ai, which I think is not by point, but man what a moment of people seeking their existing biases: the "AI generated Monet" painting that actually is in fact a real Monet (Water Lilies). People went to town! https://bsky.app/profile/segyges.bsky.social/post/3mlsgc53ry...

This effect deeply deeply deeply predates the internet. I think perhaps yes there is a little more biting sarcasm & anger & negative energies that have infected us, by being exposed to so much attention-driven systems where negative energies rule! But this chasing your existing beliefs has been around probably since before the dawn of man. I'd put money in it.