Too many big companies have behaved poorly for too long, and left regular people holding the bag too much. There's no CCP psyop, no media smear, and they aren't just stupid rednecks: the average american simply does not believe data centers will meaningfully benefit them at all.
The data center backlash is a product of two mutually reinforcing dynamics:
1) Locally, it's material concerns (noise, water, electricity) and process failure (NDAs, tax subsidies)
2) Nationally, it's broad anti-corporate and anti-AI sentiment (AI companies are screwing you over to get rich off dumb toys)
Social media + political campaigns amplify hyperlocal grievances into a broad populist movement, and there's no compelling "pro data center faction" to make the opposite case