Wisconsin town unanimously votes to ban data centers

https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/04/wisconsin-data-center-rural-town-cassville-rejects-plan-driftless-area-zoning/

459 points · 32 comments · view on lemmy.world

32 Comments

Reygle@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 87d (8 replies)

Meanwhile a small city ~20 minutes from me in Wisconsin approved and is currently building the biggest data center I've ever seen in person. :(

FreddiesLantern@leminal.space · 38 pts · 87d (5 replies)

Whatever you do, don’t pour sugar in the cement.

OwOarchist@pawb.social · 34 pts · 87d (1 reply)

Also, a PSA: datacenter electrical substation transformers make really shitty backstops for your target shooting and plinking. While they look substantial, they're actually very bad at stopping bullets and will be irreversibly damaged in the process, taking the entire datacenter offline until time-consuming and expensive repairs can be made, so you should avoid using datacenter electric substations as a shooting range, especially if you're firing mid to high-power rifles.

Reygle@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 87d (2 replies)

Hrmmmmm we should definitely not do that. Hrmmmmmm

Edit: HRMMMMMMMM I bet a salt spreader would work with sugar

AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 87d (1 reply)

You need the sugar in before it is mixed, I would think. Otherwise a solid fertilizer spreader would be faster, and I KNOW Wisconsin has those sitting around.

Reygle@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 87d

Brother have we got manure

Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 86d

How many have you seen in person?

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 87d

wisconsin did go to trump, cant expect anything less.

DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf · 19 pts · 87d (3 replies)

How soon before the AI companies lobby to get that ban overturned like in Maine?

nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 87d (2 replies)

Depends on how many concerned letters Susan Collins writes.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 87d (1 reply)

janet mills vetoed the ban, she wanted one. she probably was paid by them to run for the senate there.

nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 86d

Janet Kills hasn’t been great on a lot of issues. And Jared golden turned out to be bought and paid for.

Fredselfish@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 87d

Could turn out like the Utah town were they do this and gets built anyway.

Photonic@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 86d (6 replies)

Soon they will find out their votes are utterly meaningless when the tech overlords simply place the data centre upon them.

BillCheddar@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 86d (5 replies)

When they do, burn the fucking data center to the ground.

We have a right to govern ourselves, and if the rich aren't going to honor that right, then they can fucking burn alongside their wealth.

WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 86d (2 replies)

Only good billionaire, is a dead billionaire.

Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 86d (1 reply)

Yeah. But how many noneionaires will it take?

WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 86d

Their time is already up. If I could do...things to them, I would, had enough of their shit. I'm not hidding my sheer hatred of these fuckers.

I think as a society, we all need to agree.

They need to go dick-first into a woodchipper.

Photonic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 86d (1 reply)

Easier said than done when their AI decides where the next drone strike will be

Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 86d

You just need to Koresh a few dozen people into checking out with you

FatVegan@leminal.space · 12 pts · 86d

Thanks for your input, the problem is we don't care what peasants think

brian@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 87d (7 replies)

just to be a voice of dissidence, not all data centers fuel AI, and they're certainly vital to a vast amount of the internet.

StopTech@lemmy.today · 22 pts · 87d (1 reply)

The internet functioned before data centers. It was much better back when websites were personal home pages.

Malyca@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 87d

I wish we could get that back

Turret3857@infosec.pub · 17 pts · 87d (2 replies)

They shouldnt be and the internet was better when it was a bunch of script kiddies writing HTML sites in their bedrooms on their own machines instead of the internet being owned by 5 companies.

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 87d (1 reply)

Back when we thought marquee and blinkentext were the evils of the internet.

Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 86d

They were gateway styles.

quick_snail@feddit.nl · 7 pts · 87d (1 reply)

And also mention that one of the biggest data center companies in Europe uses wind energy >99% of the time

Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 86d

Sure they do.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 86d

Until the state passes a law that they can't do that. That's what happened in the early 2000s, when small cities decided to host their own Internet for free, and have local businesses sponsor it. One town in my area announced they could do it for $250K, and there were plenty of local businesses that spend far more on advertising.

Then the big ISPs greased some palms, and it became illegal almost everywhere.

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 85d

next week

Breaking news, new data center slated for Fredonia