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I think I largely agree with you. Where we differ is that it seems that you're trying to somehow question the scale of the opposition and deligitimize it. Something being "broad" or "widespread" or etc does not mean that it is a majority view or practice. Only a small percentage of the US population owns a pickup truck but IMO it would be entirely unreasonable to claim that ownership of those in the US is not commonplace. If you attempted to outlaw pickups and were met with opposition from all of and only the owners that would qualify as broad opposition as far as I'm concerned.

> Do you know how much opposition there actually is? Is it geographically concentrated? Is it demographically concentrated?

No, no idea, and no idea. But I don't think that actually matters with regards to our point of contention.

Recently there have been many concrete examples of people showing up to raise objections about data centers with their local politicians and regulatory bodies. This has been well documented in the media whether or not a particular outlet such as the NYT has chosen to draw attention to it. The companies themselves point to the permitting process when explaining their own recent behavior. It is thus IMO facetious to question the claim that widespread political opposition exists.

Your housing example illustrates my point perfectly. I completely agree that the situation with zoning and permitting is absurdly dysfunctional and almost entirely to blame for high housing costs. But it is also clear that there is broad opposition to building more housing for one reason or another. You might view the influence of a particular group as outsized. It would not be unreasonable to be of the opinion that the political process gives too much weight to the naysayers and is in need of reform. But when opposition is successfully blocking something across wide swaths of the country then the statement "there is broad political opposition to that in the US" is correct more or less by definition.