It also need not be everyone who fights against {cell towers, high-density housing, clothes lines, airports, railways, wind farms} -- the relevant laws/regulati

It also need not be everyone who fights against {cell towers, high-density housing, clothes lines, airports, railways, wind farms} -- the relevant laws/regulations/procedures let a sufficiently motivated minority have a pathological amount of influence when it comes to obstructionism. For example, there's a pathologically minuscule number of people who file the overwhelming majority of airport noise complaints; 6852 out of 8760 complaints for DCA in 2015 came from one single person, and this pattern holds for many airports: https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/screen_shot_2016-10-17_at_9.17.00_am.png https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/screen_shot_201... How many excessive tonnes of fuel burned in circuitous flight paths, how many years of administrative work wasted, how many near misses are we risking -- just to please this sort of goddamn wingnut who makes 18 fucking airport noise complaints literally every single day? This is what NIMBY nonsense looks like.