{"id":65996,"date":"2026-05-29T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=65996"},"modified":"2026-05-29T16:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:55:24","slug":"ziohedge-exposes-itself-former-alt-media-site-zerohedge-goes-full-gaslighting-defending-the-ai-data-center-build-out-after-takeover-by-zionist-overlords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=65996","title":{"rendered":"

ZIOHEDGE EXPOSES ITSELF: Former Alt Media site ZeroHedge goes full gaslighting defending the AI data center build out after takeover by Zionist overlords<\/b><\/h3>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millennial Rabble<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fascinating article (in the sense of how dumb it is) that ZeroHedge posted on 5\/20\/26 called\u00a0The Water Economics of Data Centers Vs. Almond Farms and Golf Courses<\/a>. That ZH has trended more and more regime-friendly isn\u2019t notable in and of itself, but what stands out about this as a microcosm of the credibility constraints that the central planners are running into is that ZH decided to promote it as one of their featured posts pinned to the top of the website. They need people to see this stuff because the persuasive value of transparent propaganda has fallen off a cliff.<\/p>\n

The argument, to the extent it can even be called that, boils down to this: globalist AI data centers are good since they use less water than globalist industrial agriculture. You, dear reader, are economically stupid and a technological Luddite to dare oppose your AI Overlords.<\/p>\n

We could stop there. But come on, I have the MR AI chatbot working for me for free. We\u2019re going to dive deep into the absurdity of the hall monitor propaganda, really expose the inner workings of this sucker. Grab your popcorn and beverage of choice.<\/p>\n

Now, in exceeding fairness to ZeroHedge, Tyler does start the article trying to sound analytical and objective:<\/p>\n

A recent Gallup poll shows that nearly 70% of Americans oppose the construction of a data center in their communities\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But of course, ZH immediately reverts to propaganda mode by linking not to the Gallup article about that data (which curious minds can find here easily enough<\/a>) but rather to one of their own other articles. Now why might ZH not want people reading about that Gallup poll? Hmmm?<\/p>\n

Not much of a mystery, you likely already know the reason. The data is really bad for the AI hucksters. 71% of respondents oppose the build out of AI data centers in their local community. In a governance system where most policy decisions are made by 50% plus 1, and the control freaks can\u2019t stop whining about Our Democracy, 71% represents a massive consensus. If anything, the intensity of the feeling is even worse than that headline number. No need to imagine it. Gallup made a handy graphic, which of course ZH didn\u2019t want to show people. Take a look for yourself:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The difference isn\u2019t people who somewhat support and oppose \u2013 that\u2019s only 3 percentage points, essentially a toss up. Nope, the difference is between people who strongly support and strongly oppose AI data centers \u2013 a mindbogglingly massive 41 percentage point differential. Only 7%(!) of respondents strongly support AI data centers being built out in their local community. Yet permits for these things are being handed out to connected insiders like candy to kids from an unmarked van.<\/p>\n

Now since there\u2019s simply nothing that can be massaged out of the horribleness that is this kind of data on what regular Americans have the temerity to think with their limited capacity, non-AI brains, ZeroHedge does the next most sensible thing: move on without discussing the role of public opinion at all. We should just do what technocrats say because they\u2019re technocrats. Duh.<\/p>\n

So ZH uses X user Smirkley. In particular, an economic comparison of what one 5 gallon water cooler jug generates from US Data Centers and California Almonds. The point being, one graphic generates a massive, almost overflowing jug of dollars, nickels, and pennies, while the other has two pennies in an otherwise empty jug. Cue tugged heartstrings, violins, and puppy commercials. I bet you haven\u2019t guessed which jug represents the data centers.<\/p>\n

Now there is some fine print of course \u2013 this is objective analysis, after all, not propaganda (right?). So what\u2019s in the fine print? The comparison is based on GDP. If you don\u2019t immediately burst out laughing, more to come on that. It\u2019s sourced from Apstech Advisors. Let\u2019s dive into that first. Now what business might Apstech Advisors be in? No need for hearsay, let\u2019s go to a primary source,\u00a0their own website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

About Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Apstech Advisors, we bridge deep industry expertise with strategic insight to help businesses and investors thrive in the global water sector. Founded by Vinod Ramachandran, a leader with over two decades of experience in water technology and investment strategy, our firm is committed to unlocking growth opportunities in this critical industry.<\/p>\n

With a global presence across the USA, Europe, India, and China, we offer localized expertise with an international perspective. Our team of senior advisors brings firsthand industry knowledge, investment insights, and tailored strategies to support water-focused businesses, from startups and scale-ups to investors and established enterprises.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you guessed generic globalist financial shenanigans, correct and congratulations, you have won the opportunity to miss out on yet another investment thesis that could hav made you rich navigating, as they describe in another section, \u201cthe complexities of the evolving water sector\u201d. But I don\u2019t want to say much more about Apstech. They seem like a pretty standard make-some-money-from-fiat-exploitation firm.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get back to the notion of using GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in this calculation. Because that\u2019s the sleight of hand that\u2019s so subtle yet so central to the deception. Remember, this article is phrased in grand terms of water economics. Yet, the friendly visual graphic is calculated based on the deceptive subset of economics captured by the prices of transactions that occur in the formal economy. That has nothing to do with value or the philosophical questions of how to prioritize limited resources. Whenever you see GDP used as stand-in or proxy for value broadly, you should assume that the author is doing something fishy. If and only if they explicitly address the limitations of GDP do you take what they are doing as anything other than deception.<\/p>\n

That paragraph applies to GDP broadly. It is especially comical for proponents of AI to use GDP because everything about the AI hype is fake. It\u2019s all about externalizing costs onto others so that all that\u2019s left for the connected insiders is the profit. Of course the output of data centers gooses GDP.\u00a0That\u2019s what MMT deficit spending does<\/b>: it emits currency units to give to massive enterprises (bureaucracies) to buy stuff denominated in said currency unit from other massive enterprises (bureaucracies). That\u2019s what GDP measures, the flow of fiat from one predator to another. The prey aren\u2019t part of the calculation. That is by design. It\u2019s plunder at scale. POSIWID. Whatever floats your boat.<\/p>\n

At least that far, the argument is deceptive while remaining technically true in the sense of using citable sources and factual claims. That\u2019s modern corporate PR and government propaganda in a nutshell: deploy factual statements in deceptive ways.<\/p>\n

But the idiocy of AI \u2013 and especially the criticism of AI critics \u2013 has reached such hilarious heights that they\u2019ve started abandoning that basic tenet of strategic crisis communications in favor of sweeping statements that have no basis in fact and no citable sources. As ZH put it:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026critics of data centers often fail to point out \u2013 especially in California \u2013 that agriculture also consumes a tremendous amount of water\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

That line had me bust out laughing, but in case you\u2019re not hip to the water wars in Cali, let me spell it out a bit. There are few subjects that have been more covered than agricultural use of water in California. To illustrate that point, let\u2019s go back to the stone age, the beginning of the Year of Our Overlord 1 AC (After ChatGPT) a\/k\/a early 2022. And let\u2019s ignore those evil dastardly capitalist Christian nationalist white supremacist conservative Luddites. Let\u2019s go to another venue \u2013 Mother Jones.<\/p>\n

In the January\/February 2022 issue, the environment section ran this headline:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The whole article is\u00a0worth a read<\/a>. What is particularly germane to the ZH piece, though, is the simple fact that it exists. Smearing AI critics with false claims that nobody was talking about water before the last couple years is comical precisely because it\u2019s so obviously false. Agriculture in California specifically has been central to the conversation of how to think about water.<\/p>\n

But I think the central planners are desperate because water is a unifying force. They\u2019ve put in so much effort to divide us \u2013 age, race, partisanship, gun control, censorship, etc. \u2013 and water represents one of those essential elements that binds us together. Turns out both socialist tree huggers and conservative hunters, anglers and kayakers, like water. Shocking. They can\u2019t let stand any notion that water might have more value beyond just how much fiat you can obtain selling it to globalist oligarchs who care nothing about local community, values, or way of life.<\/p>\n

Moreover, globalist industrial agriculture is at the heart of the problem. That\u2019s almost beyond the scope of this ever-embiggening meander, but it\u2019s worth pointing out explicitly. We have massive wealth in America, and part of that wealth is in our farmland and water and the systems that allow us to access these things. That we are exporting almonds and pistachios and so forth at scale for globalist consumption across a continent or on the other side of the planet instead of growing fruits and vegetables and raising livestock for local consumption is a fundamental aspect of a system that is fundamentally at odds with national sovereignty, local control, and public health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think even ZH recognizes the absurdity of the Smirkley comparison, because toward the end of the article, they also loosely reference Andy Masley. Here\u2019s\u00a0a good link on his stance<\/a>. Now Masley understands the narrative importance of stating truthful facts to use for PR purposes. I also like a guy willing to say something is fake right in his headline.<\/p>\n

Masley calls out one of the biggest problems on \u2018our side\u2019, if you will: the sensationalist doomsday scenarios that are rooted more in hyperbolic claims than factual risk assessment. It makes us look bad. (Indeed, one might say discrediting legitimate criticism of central planning is part of the point of those efforts\u2026). But of course, after all the reasonable caveats, acknowledgements that data centers do use water, and scoping the conversation narrowly to avoid other pitfalls, you get this gem at the heart of the argument:<\/p>\n

Critics of data centers need to carefully weigh their water costs against the massive amounts of revenue they can bring in for everyday people, not just look at the water costs alone. The debate about building data centers should involve reasonable conversations between ecologists, economists, and city officials, not everyday voters shouting down local meetings with misleading statistics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there you have it folks, how the propaganda works. Don\u2019t have opinions at meetings. Don\u2019t be passionate. Don\u2019t challenge your betters. Just do whatever reasonable things the ecologists, economists, and city officials say is in your best interest. I mean, who are you to have insight into what is in your best interest?<\/p>\n

In case you\u2019re still reading, there\u2019s one more aspect of the ZH article that is fascinating. They deploy the increasingly-common trope of comparing AI critics to nuclear power critics. It is fascinating to me because it makes the AI proponents look even sillier. The argument is that critics of nuclear power overreacted, and so, by analogy, AI critics are also overreacting.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s ZH quoting Smirkley:<\/p>\n

Anti-data-center luddites may be worse than anti-nuclear activists. It is the same emotional panic, but even dumber somehow\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now that\u2019s meant to be a win for the pro data center crowd. After all, nuclear power produces power. And there haven\u2019t been major catastrophic meltdowns. But therein lies the rub for AI, the underlying fraud they can\u2019t talk their way around: the nuclear power industry actually produces electrical power at scale. That power goes to the grid that is used by ordinary people. Not only do ordinary people use electricity, but that electricity use makes their lives better. The only question up for debate is the cost at which that power is produced.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the AI industry doesn\u2019t produce intelligence (or to be generous, that conclusion is debatable), and even if you disagree with that conclusion, the output of AI doesn\u2019t help ordinary people. It simply makes connected insiders rich while degrading the ability of citizens to oppose surveillance (the real point, of course, of having massive data collection, storage, and analysis in the first place).<\/p>\n

Nuclear power is a debate about how to weight different kinds of risks against the certainty of power output, a cost benefit analysis challenge that involves concepts that are both conducive to dollar-denomination and not so conducive. AI has all of those problems, plus the foundational problem that the output itself is useless \u2013 or even a net harm \u2013 to the majority of the population. You know, the folks who, allegedly, comprise Our Democracy.<\/p>\n

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