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Agreed. Even more generally: the argument "I voted and it didn't change anything" has always seemed to me incredibly self-absorbed. Of course your individual vo

Agreed. Even more generally: the argument "I voted and it didn't change anything" has always seemed to me incredibly self-absorbed. Of course your individual vote didn't change anything. After all, it was worth no more than a hundred million other votes, and some of those voters (deep breath!) did not share your personal values and priorities.

anigbrowl 4mo ago
That's facile. Such statements are clearly a synecdoche for the phenomena of well-organized grassroots campaigns getting steamrolled by massively-funded advertising from PACs, or popular votes/referenda being overridden or stymied by small numbers of electeds. Anyone who is politically active has seen numerous examples of this: here's a recent one from Utah: https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/05/04/box-elder-commissioners-approve-data-center/ https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/05/04/box-elder-commission... There is a lot of corruption in political systems and false equivalences such as the above do not help.
- bluebarbet 4mo ago
  All no doubt true and none of it contradicts my point.
- consensus1 4mo ago
  What is the corruption you are alleging here? I live in Salt Lake City and I haven't heard any arguments against that data center that don't boil down to some kind of conspiracy theory or just a fundamental lack of understanding of scale and engineering. Are you claiming that the commissioners were bribed?
  - paulryanrogers 4mo ago
    Why build data centers in water scarce, often hot deserts? Perhaps folks are also upset the DCs will host AI that may affect their job prospects or at least compensation? Isn't the salt lake an environmental disaster waiting to happen, especially as it is drained for more development?
    - consensus1 4mo ago
      [dead]
Andrex 4mo ago
> After all, it was worth no more than a hundred million other votes Not strictly true for presidential elections. My vote cast in CT literally matters more than someone else's vote cast in CA. Yay electoral college!
- yamillove 4mo ago
  But that’s because CA matters more than CT. Thank God for the electoral college!

anigbrowl 4mo ago

That's facile. Such statements are clearly a synecdoche for the phenomena of well-organized grassroots campaigns getting steamrolled by massively-funded advertising from PACs, or popular votes/referenda being overridden or stymied by small numbers of electeds. Anyone who is politically active has seen numerous examples of this: here's a recent one from Utah: https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/05/04/box-elder-commissioners-approve-data-center/ https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/05/04/box-elder-commission... There is a lot of corruption in political systems and false equivalences such as the above do not help.

bluebarbet 4mo ago
All no doubt true and none of it contradicts my point.
consensus1 4mo ago
What is the corruption you are alleging here? I live in Salt Lake City and I haven't heard any arguments against that data center that don't boil down to some kind of conspiracy theory or just a fundamental lack of understanding of scale and engineering. Are you claiming that the commissioners were bribed?
- paulryanrogers 4mo ago
  Why build data centers in water scarce, often hot deserts? Perhaps folks are also upset the DCs will host AI that may affect their job prospects or at least compensation? Isn't the salt lake an environmental disaster waiting to happen, especially as it is drained for more development?
  - consensus1 4mo ago
    [dead]

Andrex 4mo ago

> After all, it was worth no more than a hundred million other votes Not strictly true for presidential elections. My vote cast in CT literally matters more than someone else's vote cast in CA. Yay electoral college!

yamillove 4mo ago
But that’s because CA matters more than CT. Thank God for the electoral college!