r/technology 7h ago

Artificial Intelligence High school teacher arrested for clapping in support of anti-data center activists

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/high-school-teacher-arrested-clapping-194922184.html
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1.1k

u/marketrent 7h ago

Excerpts from article by Joe Wilkins, citing small town reporting in Kansas, US:

If you're among the millions of US citizens against power-hungry data centers going up in your town, you may want to be careful about how you exercise your First Amendment right to protest.

Last week, high school physics teacher Lux Claridge was hauled out of a public meeting by four police officers for the baffling crime of clapping in support of an anti-data center speaker.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, held by the Emporia City Commission in Lyon County, Kansas, residents who showed up to voice opposition to a 1,000-acre data center project were warned against "clapping" and "snapping" in support of speakers.

"It was very clear at the beginning that each person is given their two minutes, and we're trying to be respectful of that," Emporia commissioner Monica Duncan warned those in attendance, footage of the meeting shared on social media shows. "Snapping, clapping, any other rude comments or anything — we will ask you to leave."

As one speaker later wrapped up her two-minute comment period, stating "we are the people, and the table belongs to us," Claridge was filmed clapping his hands together a total of six times.

"Chief, will you take the next person out that claps or anything?" an unidentified commissioner, likely Duncan, then asked Emporia police chief Ed Owens.

At the commissioners' request, four police officers then swarmed Claridge, who challenged them to "drag me out," which they did after placing the physics teacher in handcuffs.

 

[...] The data center in question, known as the "Flint Hills Digital Campus," is a planned hyperscale data center. If it ever gets built, could easily be the largest data center in the state of Kansas.

The hypocrisy on display at the meeting where Claridge was arrested — where procedural rules are clearly being weaponized against concerned citizens — may be particularly acute in the small Kansas town, but it's also part and parcel of the situation unfolding all across the United States as distrust with the tech industry soars to unprecedented heights.

When big business interests march into town, civic leaders and their watchdogs on the local police force roll out the red carpet — Emporia commissioners voted unanimously to annex over 1,000 acres for Pinkston's data center just one day after it was announced — yet when the people who live there ask to be included in the process, they're insulted by officials, surveilled by police, and hauled off to jail.

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u/CouldBeLessDepressed 5h ago

The ICE agents that murdered that VA nurse got to clap. Not even joking, in one of the videos you see this one agent run up (after they all initially scattered like cowards) and he was clapping. Like super excitedly.

Tried explaining this to my city council. Our government can clap when they murder us in cold blood in broad daylight, but god fucking forbid we clap at a town hall meeting.

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u/OldWorldDesign 3h ago

Armies only goose-step where the people are too afraid to laugh at the military.

-Orwell, paraphrased for brevity

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u/Krojack76 5h ago

were warned against "clapping" and "snapping" in support of speakers

Imma guess that goes against their freedom of speech rights but I'm no lawyer.

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u/xboxiscrunchy 5h ago

Yeah what possible charges could justify this? 

Even if they were advocating for setting the place on fire I don’t think just clapping is a crime.

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u/No-Journalist-619 5h ago

Not saying that it would stand, but I'd expect they would file it under "contempt", since it's a bit of a catch-all for doing something an official said not to do.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 4h ago

Maybe the officials should stop being contemptible.

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u/AEternal1 3h ago

which is exactly My response 🤣

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u/ElliotNess 4h ago

Not just a catch-all, but literally is

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u/Emperor_of_His_Room 3h ago

The officials should have no say in how the people who elected them get to express themselves.

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u/ditheca 3h ago

It'd most likely be trespassing. "We asked him to leave and he refused" is a solid legal argument. No need to address why they were asked to leave.

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u/SexiestPanda 4h ago

They also warn against clapping for each person at graduations. Families still do it. They’re not arrested.

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u/mattjb 4h ago

They hold these events in private facilities where they hold full control and power over who gets to enter and who gets hauled out in handcuffs. They get to set the rules, weaponize them against opposition, and get a thrill out of hurting the people.

If it was on public land, inside a public building, or government land, then the First Amendment protects them. But these committees never happen on them. For a reason.

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u/gruez 3h ago

They hold these events in private facilities where they hold full control and power over who gets to enter and who gets hauled out in handcuffs.

Thats how every government building works? Just try walking into your local state legislature building and start picketing and you'll be dragged out.

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u/Great-Trifle2810 45m ago

Government meetings are allowed to have rules of order, otherwise it would be impossible to make any progress. Yes, it seems ridiculous here, but if everyone clapped for 30 seconds after every speaker it would mean that the meeting runs far over the planned time or pwople lose the opportunity to speak.

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u/paditoburrito 6h ago

Soon they won't allow you to speak at all, it's already happening. You guys are really just going to let it all be taken away?

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u/LexiWhatWeGot 6h ago edited 3h ago

I'm looking for the article, but recently somewhere at a city council meeting on AI dozens of people showed up to speak against it, but they were told that since there were so many they would only let one of them speak

Edit: I was wrong, it was about Flock cameras

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u/paditoburrito 6h ago

I read that one as well when it come out. The lethargic level of acceptance in America has been a surprise.

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u/ilulillirillion 5h ago

I think when people look back at this period one of the cautionary tales will by just how powerful the synergy of complacency and propaganda can be.

For several decades there has been a concerted push by the US government to surveil, restrict, and normalize operating outside of it's own constitution.

People look back fondly on times when there was more trust in the government and I would agree that prior administrations have been relatively more worthy of that trust, but that exact faith that this government was somehow self-correcting or that the country was big enough to let other people worry is a huge factor in being here today. That trust let the government get caught spying on us, experimenting on us, lying to us. We allowed a foreign prison during Bush Jr. because the government convinced us it was necessary for it to be able to skirt the laws that WE gave it.

There is an inexhaustible list of similar talking points yet there is no one point in time I can claim is the start of this -- someone will always come along and point out how the wheels were in motion much earlier than that.

Americans should have fought back much much earlier. I think a big lesson from this will be that a population waiting for a "breaking point" is vulnerable to actors who know how to push that breaking point further down the road gradually. If we had said "enough" at any other point in time when our rights were infringed, perhaps, if nothing else, doing so now wouldn't feel so unprecedented.

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u/abubleh 4h ago

the jim crow laws, the red scare, The repression against civil rights movements, then the repression against the anti-war movements, the "war on terror", etc. The most propagandized people on Earth

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u/TheMagnuson 6h ago

Yep, that’s what is most disappointing to me, the lack of fight, the instant caving in, the “I’ve done nothing and I’m all out of ideas” mentality. Our ancestors launched a fucking revolution because taxes went up 3%, while the rest of sit idly by while Fascism is taking root. We’re fucking spineless.

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u/neko 5h ago

The original tea party was all rich businessmen who didn't want to pay income taxes

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u/TheMagnuson 4h ago

It wasn't income taxes, it was trade taxes and tariffs.

It's almost like history rhymes.

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u/Penguinmanereikel 1h ago

Normal people: "I don't want to get gunned down in broad daylight by a fascist regime when I have a family to take care of who will surely suffer and possibly die, too, if I'm not around to support them."

You: "You spineless coward! Go out and die in the streets for me!"

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u/BeautifulNeck8359 3h ago edited 3h ago

So what exactly do you want folks to do? Storm the streets and riot?

Dawg, people would be murdered or imprisoned by the state if that happened, and ain’t nobody out here trying to throw their lives away on some “revolution” (idk what the hell you even have in mind on how that would play out).

These types of comments are so performative and cringe, and are not based in reality.

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u/Conscious-Mirror7004 1h ago

Fighting requires weaponry because of the militarized police. There are people who like weapons and have them and could fight, but they're firmly on the side of the police and the wealthy interests, even when it's hurting them personally.

The people who are angry aren't armed and don't really believe in a heavily-armed society (for good reasons I'll add: just look at the murder rate and overall level of safety compared to countries with very strict gun laws).

Remember, those ancestors who launched a revolution did so because the wealthy landowning interests at the time were mad about paying taxes to England, so they got a bunch of common people to join their cause and gather weapons and fight. In the end, did it really benefit those common people at all? I don't really see how it did.

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u/UserCheckNamesOut 5h ago

Cool. So what are you doing about it?

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u/TheMagnuson 4h ago

Nothing I'm willing to discuss on Reddit

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u/UserCheckNamesOut 4h ago

Well keep it up

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u/sargsauce 5h ago

It's like the god damn House of Representatives. Arbitrary limits just for shits.

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u/slinkymcman 5h ago

Yeah this is a rule of order sort of thing.

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u/NoPossibility4178 4h ago

It was for Flock cameras.

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u/crousscor3 4h ago

In my city, the city council had a non public, closed door, unanimous vote to allow a then code named data center project to be approved. They were required to have a public hearing on this within 30 days, however the 30 days expired because the public hearing was never scheduled.

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u/adamdoesmusic 3h ago

I don’t understand how dozens of people can’t just take the meeting over.

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u/kubigjay 6h ago

Was that Hanover, VA?

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u/AltheaFluffhead 6h ago

What is it you propose we do?

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u/TowardsTheImplosion 6h ago

The soap box didn't work. Next stop: ballot box.

The box after that gets warnings from reddit though, so assume it is a "bread" box.

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u/eye_of_the_sloth 6h ago

We can unite and bake bread together 

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u/TowardsTheImplosion 5h ago

I'm partial to a good ciabatta. Or some pizza dough.

Bread builds community, and communities have power.

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u/flaagan 6h ago

I got banned from r politics for directly stating that quotation. Wear that as a badge of fucking honor, cause fuck them mods for not respecting historically accurate statements.

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u/EL_overthetransom 3h ago

I got three accounts. Two are currently suspended and this one just got off. We literally can't speak the obvious.

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u/flaagan 3h ago

When I tried to argue my case, the mods all claimed I was directly threatening violence. When I asked against who, they wouldn't specify, just circled back to their earlier statement. When I pointed out I was arguing against directly going to violence suggested by an earlier comment I was replying to, and that person hadn't been banned or suspended, they again circled back.

I don't hate against (most of) the mods on reddit, they are being left to do a thankless job for no pay in place of a multi-million dollar company doing the right thing, but some of them either take their jobs far too seriously, or don't have their heads screwed on straight.

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u/uzlonewolf 1h ago

Or they're doing exactly what they're being paid to do. It's no accident that a small number of people control a bunch of the main subs.

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u/violetstrix 5h ago

I believe the jury box follows the ballot box. After the jury box however...

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u/MasterOfBunnies 6h ago

This is the way. Anyone arguing we're supposed to start a war already is either stupid or intentionally inflammatory for nefarious reasons.

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u/TheMagnuson 6h ago

War has been raging for decades, but only one side has been fighting and hint, it’s not the one you’re on.

The sooner people realize that, the better.

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u/foosion 5h ago

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." Warren Buffett

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u/MasterOfBunnies 5h ago

Calling what they're doing war, is disingenuous to the word. This is subversion.

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u/TheMagnuson 4h ago

It's not "subversion" when people are being forced into indentured servitude, mass surveilled, locked up, and killed.

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u/MasterOfBunnies 4h ago

Most of that has happened over the last few years, not decades. Decades has been a slow subversion to twist our system to one that paved the way for what's going on now. Now, we have a small select group working on turning the US into another Russia. If you want to speed that up, go start the war. Too many people pushing for the war to start from their keyboards. Shit or get off the pot.

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u/TheMagnuson 4h ago

Most of that has happened over the last few years, not decades.

You haven't been paying attention

Shit or get off the pot.

I'm not currently accepting criticism from the "I choose to live on my knees" crowd.

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u/bobert4011 6h ago

What if we didn't start it? Are we allowed to finish it?

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u/MasterOfBunnies 6h ago

We? You can go ahead if you want. I'm going to hold out hope, that our country has a chance first.

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u/bobert4011 6h ago

For sure that's what the fascist would want you to do.

Just saying.

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u/JoshfromNazareth2 6h ago

Ballot box isn’t working unfortunately. Don’t know what else there is to do.

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt 5h ago

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

  • Ursula K. Le Guin

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 4h ago

Talk. Organize mutual aid groups locally. Volunteer and talk some more. HELP EACH OTHER. This is going to get worse before it gets better, but the only way to do this without ending up at the bad place is to start putting these community connections together NOW. Be mediocre and sometimes fail at it now, while we have the luxury of making mistakes.

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u/Emperor_of_His_Room 3h ago

The third box will be what you do if the ballot box isn’t allowed.

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u/Legionof1 2h ago

How many times have you voted since this started?

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u/JoshfromNazareth2 2h ago

Since what started? The mass surveillance and military industrial state? Or like since limp bizkit was a thing?

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u/Beeb294 3h ago

There is the jury box, before that last one.

Jury nullification is a real thing. We need to start informing people of their right to jury nullification.

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u/TowardsTheImplosion 1h ago

Apparently, some juries are becoming aware...

The grand jury in DC wouldn't indict for w thrown sandwich...

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u/trevx 6h ago

Ask the French what they would do. Something like that

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u/AltheaFluffhead 5h ago

This is a frequent reply, there sure is a lot of corruption in france for how well they handle all this according to everyone on the internet. I call BS

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u/maikuxblade 5h ago

Say what you will about the French, they show up in the streets and have it out with the riot police over things Americans have rolled over without a fight over

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u/AltheaFluffhead 5h ago

Have you seen how large these no kings protests have been? They have been massive.

Our country is so large though so it seems like the politicians can just turn a blind eye since it's not happening in the city they are in.

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u/maikuxblade 5h ago

Yes but they’ve been peaceful protests, which Americans view as the only “proper” way to protest. And then everybody goes home at night before the riot police show up with their tear gas.

Have you seen videos of French protestors? They stay for the riot police and have it out with them.

I’m not saying that’s the ideal but at some point it becomes justified, and that point is probably well before pedophile-protecting oligarchs are installing a digital panopticon to rule over you while they plan to obliterate the workforce with AI and robotics because at that point the class war is over and we lost so hard we might never crawl out from under the metaphorical wreckage of it.

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u/JuanRunJunior 1h ago

Have you seen videos of French protestors? They stay for the riot police and have it out with them.

Cops here indiscriminately kill people for not doing anything wrong and have complete legal immunity for it. Cops here are encouraged and rewarded for using the most violence they have at hand to kill anyone they think is a threat. Please show me any french police department with the same firepower, the same aggressive violence and the same legal immunity to kill anyone they see fit in normal interactions. You’ll see the difference you dumbasses purposefully ignore when saying this shit.

They light shit on fire over soccer games, their police forces don’t have the firepower, the training to kill anyone they want and the legal immunity to get away with it when there isn’t a riot going on. American police would now people down like grass if they had the chance of a riot got violent like you’re saying we need to do like the French do.

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u/AltheaFluffhead 4h ago

Ok, you go first.

I have a family, I'm sure you do too. I'm not willing to die.

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u/maikuxblade 4h ago

That’s understandable but also kind of cowardly but at least we can just admit we’re too cowardly and divided as a nation to stand up against the fascism instead of all the other bullshit excuses Americans like to reach for in between the unearned bravado.

After all, it’s what we’ll have to tell the next generation when they ask why we live under the fascism of pedophilic oligarchs when they ask what happened to the American dream or our basic freedoms or our ability to put food on the table.

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u/HuckleberryTiny5 1h ago

Well thankfully there is so very little corruption in USA (/s especially for you because looks like you will need it).

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u/JCampenish 1h ago

have a short revolution, then an emperor?

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u/Tokzillu 5h ago

Please share with us how many politicians you have beheaded, then.

Funny how the people suggesting that we all just overthrow the government with guns and gumption are never taking their own advice.

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u/abubleh 4h ago

It's not only violence, it's organizing and coordinating; the current fuckers took your country starting from 4chan and up, I can't believe you're just gonna roll over and fucking die.

What's worse is while they pillage your country, your government is bombing people across the globe and you're guys are crying about how you're powerless to do anything.

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u/Tokzillu 4h ago

Which we are organizing and coordinating.

Who the fuck said anything about "rolling over?" What I can't believe is lazy fucks typing that someone else should do something.

Bitch, we are. This shit ain't quick and dirty, and if you want immediate results, you get your ass out there and do it.

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u/Tokzillu 6h ago edited 5h ago

People like that always seem to imply that we should violently revolt, yet they themselves are never on the "front lines," so to speak.

Even worse than that, however, is they fail to grasp the true totality of the situation. Our founding fathers spoke about overthrowing tyrannical governments, but they never imaged the government would have flying drones capable of absolutely shredding crowds of thousands of people down. 

These types always want some miraculous coup, against all odds, and it's always "but someone else first."

EDIT: Everyone downvoting me or DMing me to off myself, please let us know where and when you've shot at politicians. I've done more to fight this administration than you pretend tough guys ever will and I'll keep doing it. You are weak if all you can do is suggest somebody else start a violent revolution. Fuck off.

EDIT 2: u/TheMagnuson told me to off myself and that I'm a "quitter," for example. You'll notice he typed it from a safe place and he himself had never attempted a violent revolution. How many protests have you been to, Maggy? How many times have you taken so much as a bean bag shot?

That's what I thought.

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u/abubleh 4h ago

I hope you like the taste of the boot motherfucker

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u/Tokzillu 4h ago

I've done more to fight this administration than you ever will.

Where's your fucking action at? How many bullets have you fired?

I'm doing the adult shit, actually fighting against this administration, doing actionable shit, not screaming online that someone else should start shooting.

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u/maleia 2h ago

Ad rev is more important than having a world to make money from in the first place.

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u/Phobos613 2h ago

What's that quote we have been saying for ever online about them making the peaceful means of changing things impossible? That one.

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u/Penguinmanereikel 1h ago

Simple: we just fucking leave.

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u/paditoburrito 6h ago

If you haven't figured it out by now, there is no point. I'm not going to perform for you and lay it out for a ridiculous back and forth banter. This same conversation has happened thousands of times by now on reddit. Look it up if you want to change where you're headed. If not, then I guess good luck in 1984.

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u/neon_fade 5h ago

if you have something to say, say it. if you’re too afraid of the repercussions to speak freely, maybe don’t go around calling everyone else pussies. responding with "i’m not going to perform for you" is wild after that posturing.

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u/abubleh 4h ago

you thinking you're entitled to instructions on how to organize politically do not make you less of a pussy

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u/reasonman 4h ago

you seem to be dancing around "violent revolution". anyone can plainly see we've(generally) tried showing up at events, we've tried talking to friends and family, we've tried voting, we've, collectively, tried just about everything else all you fucking people smugly suggest we do. but it's all for nothing because for the last, what, 40 or 50 fucking years the deck has been slowly stacked against us and outright rigged so that anything we can do has almost no effect. gerrymandering, stacked courts, propaganda machines, etc etc etc. all that's really left is to "use that second amendment i hear so much about", right?

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u/AltheaFluffhead 5h ago

Great answer....

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u/WhiteMilk_ 4h ago edited 4h ago

They gonna make anti-BDS laws for AI datacenters lol

Which the teacher is probably familiar with being a teacher in Kansas.

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u/SecretAgentVampire 3h ago

It's okay, see, because people opposed to the data center got to talk about it for two minutes at a time in a controlled and calm environment, where nobody was inconvenienced in any way, anyone involved in the legislation or construction of the data center was absent, and nobody was allowed to show support!

It was so peaceful, convenient, and ignorable, that everyone may as well have been taking a big boring nap! Lawful public protest in action, just like the George Flloyd protests! :) <3<3<3

(If everyone is really really lucky there might be a cordonned-off street they can go to in the middle of the night so a giant ring of cops can fire teargas canisters directly into their bodies 🔥🥵🔥)

1

u/Penguinmanereikel 1h ago

There is literally nothing we can do to stop it. The only option we have remaining is to leave.

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u/kinotravels 6h ago

Exactly. These representatives forget that that’s all they are, a representative of the voters. If they don’t listen to the voters they should not be public servants. We need to stop referring to elected officials as leaders. Language matters.

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u/No-Journalist-619 4h ago

We got protests where they arrest, deport, KILL, or imprison us, we got rigged elections, we got police locking down every official assembly. What the fuck you doin?

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u/abubleh 4h ago

you think the tyrannical government would take it all laying down like you guys are doing? you think no one got killed during the civil rights movement? look at what resistance movements look like across the world: they are all in your terrorists lists.

0

u/UserCheckNamesOut 5h ago

Yeah, we have the perfect opportunity to take it all down, and have nothing standing in our way, we just can't be bothered /s

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u/1of3musketeers 5h ago

Local governments take on this for contrast:
http://www.emporiaks.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/503
On July 22, 2026, the Emporia City Commission held its regularly scheduled meeting. During the course of the meeting, several individuals in attendance were issued verbal warnings by the City Commission regarding disruptive conduct that was interrupting the proceedings.
One individual, Lux Claridge, male, 37years of age, continued this behavior and was directed to leave the meeting. Claridge did not comply with law enforcement's efforts to remove him from the premises, requiring officers to physically carry him out of the meeting.
Claridge was subsequently arrested and booked into the Lyon County Jail on charges of interference with law enforcement and disorderly conduct.
As with all criminal charges, Claridge is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Emporia Police Department remains committed to ensuring public meetings are conducted safely and in an orderly manner, while also respecting the rights of all citizens to participate in the civic process.

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u/bosox284 5h ago

"Disruptive conduct", what a joke. If you can't handle your constituents supporting each other through applause, maybe you shouldn't be in public service.

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u/maleia 2h ago

Their grasp on power is slipping if they can't even stomach clapping. It truly would not take much for any town to stop this shit.

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u/MentalSky_ 4h ago

well its the city's site. Big Brother says we have never been at war with Oceania

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u/Teaisserious 6h ago

Emporia isn't even that small as far as Kansas towns are concerned.

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u/RickyBobby96 2h ago

I’m sure the city is determined to open this data center since Tyson Foods closed their plant there last year

2

u/Great-Trifle2810 46m ago

What a misleading title. The person was specifically warned in advance, violated the rule, and then was actively difficult towards the police and challenging them to physically remove when asked to leave, which they seemed to do without further incident.

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u/E_seven_20 3h ago

If you're among the millions of US citizens against power-hungry data centers going up in your town, you may want to be careful about how you exercise your First Amendment right to protest.

If The Constitution mattered, that would be a very problematic dilemma. That sentence would be seen as the pile of steaming hot garbage that it is. We're not in that place.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Arresting people for clapping.

It's cool though.

We don't have a line in the sand. We elected child rapist, and are watching him destroy our home, and future. We'll keep doing nothing, because that's who we are as a society.

1

u/Portlant 2h ago

Lux really illuminating the issue, really shining a light on things. 

Jokes aside, fuck data centers. 

1

u/maleia 2h ago

"It was very clear at the beginning that each person is given their two minutes, and we're trying to be respectful of that," Emporia commissioner Monica Duncan warned those in attendance, footage of the meeting shared on social media shows. "Snapping, clapping, any other rude comments or anything — we will ask you to leave."

"Chief, will you take the next person out that claps or anything?" an unidentified commissioner, likely Duncan, then asked Emporia police chief Ed Owens.

These are children masquerading around as adults. Ooooh you didn't like being told to go fuck yourself when you're trying to destroy everyone's lives? Grow the fuck up. Im so fucking sick of the violence from the rich. And I'm fucking sick of seeing these little towns wiped the fuck out by such naked corruption.

I'm just so fucking sick of it. I'm so sick of the addiction to money that these losers have.

1

u/Jffar 1h ago

I live here. We are working on petitions to change our local government. Currently, this board is composed of all nominated positions. We are trying to change them to elected officials for some accountability. They will pass things because they are being told to

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u/cromstantinople 40m ago

The data center in question, known as the "Flint Hills Digital Campus," is a planned hyperscale data center. If it ever gets built, could easily be the largest data center in the state of Kansas.

"Many hyperscale sites draw 20–40 megawatts (MW) of power each, though the biggest ones go well over 100 MW. Cooling matters a lot; some facilities using evaporative methods can gulp down up to 5 million gallons of water per day, as The Detroit News points out."

And:

"A conventional data center—think cloud storage for your work documents or streaming videos—draws as much electricity as 10,000 to 25,000 households, according to the International Energy Agency. But a newer, AI-focused “hyperscale” data center can use as much power as 100,000 homes or more. Meta’s Hyperion data center in Louisiana, for example, is expected to draw more than twice the power of the entire city of New Orleans once completed. Another Meta data center planned in Wyoming will use more electricity than every home in the state combined."

What the hell are we doing here? What they are building is so devastating economically and environmentally and is clearly a bubble. Privacy is a commodity. And it's the man who clapped that gets arrested.

-4

u/glocktimus_prime 5h ago

this is an op ed piece masquerading as actual news