Someone brought a guillotine to a city council meeting in Salem, Oregon on July 27, 2026. Not a sign shaped like one. Not a drawing. According to community accounts and social media posts, an actual guillotine structure appeared at the protest outside Loucks Auditorium, where hundreds of residents had gathered to oppose a proposed multi-billion-dollar AI data center. Company representatives reportedly assessed the scene and left, citing safety concerns — though that detail hasn’t appeared in formal news coverage or official minutes.
It’s the whole package. It’s the unsightly huge buildings, the taking of jobs, the AI slop, the environmental destruction, the electricity cost increase, the noise, the pollution. There are few good things AI does, and none of them offset the negatives.
They’re building data centres in the idiots’ backyards, that’s why. Rural voters vote Red because they’re disconnected from society and have no tolerance for people different than themselves. This issue affects them so they care. The people on the left care about the environment and oppose them despite not being directly affected. Because they have empathy and the capacity for critical thinking.
I’m not sure this issue “unites” people against anything other than data centres specifically, but time will tell.