Today on the pod, we had a great chat with The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett to unpack the strange new fault line splitting the American right over AI and data centers. Kinnett, a former science teacher turned commentator, argues that the anti-data center backlash sweeping parts of the conservative movement is a mix of genuine local grievances (ugly warehouses, uneven infrastructure spending) and a manufactured hysteria that mirrors anti-nuclear panic from decades past — right down to borrowing AOC-style “dirty water jar” theatrics. He traces the deeper split back to a Tucker Carlson/Bernie Sanders-style populism that wants to freeze technology in place, versus what he calls the true American conservative tradition: pioneering, innovating, and building rather than preserving obsolete industries out of nostalgia.
From there, the conversation ranges widely. We both make the case that the real global contest isn’t left vs. right but the American model vs. the Chinese model, with Europe cast as a cautionary tale of a continent too regulation-happy and risk-averse to compete.
