Socialists Are the New Luddites (And They May Have a Point)

[Doc7505]

Socialists Are the New Luddites ​

(And They May Have a Point)​

Socialists Are the New Luddites (And They May Have a Point)

Exploring Bernie Sanders' call for an AI moratorium and its implications for the future of work.

hotair.com

17 Dec 2025 ~~ by John Sexton

Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video yesterday calling for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers. His pitch is that AI is being created and promoted by multi-billionaires, who are always the villains in his take on the world. He asks viewers this question: "Do you believe that these guys, these multi-billionaires are staying up nights worrying about what AI and robotics will do to the working families of our country and the world?" Sanders answers his own question, saying, "I think these very rich men want even more wealth and more power and for a whole bunch of reasons that is very dangerous."
Here's the video:

​

Regular readers know I'm not a fan of Bernie's politics. In fact, I detest socialism with a passion and I generally shrug off complaints about the wealthy as the politics of envy.
In this case, I still don't agree with Sanders but I think he does have a legitimate point. After all, the people he's quoting in that video, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, aren't know-nothing outsiders. It's literally the people who know this field who are warning that it has the potential to replace a lot of workers. That's not a worst case scenario in their view, it's the desired outcome of AI reaching a point referred to as artificial general intelligence.
~Snip~
So in this instance, Bernie isn't imagining things or cooking up scenarios that seem politically driven. He's really just agreeing with some of the people who know this field best. AI really is coming for a lot of jobs and it's going to happen a lot faster than anyone can imagine.
~Snip~
There's a problem with his outlook which Sanders doesn't mention. Letting democracy catch up to AI sounds good but there is at least one major non-democracy that is working as quickly as possible to make AI part of their system. China isn't going to stop while we have a long conversation about how to approach this. They are moving forward quickly, taking the open source designs made in the US and copying and improving on them.
Simply put, a moratorium for democracy just gives the autocrats a chance to race ahead. And what happens then could be much worse than the disruption Sanders is worried about. If you put the most powerful AI on the planet in the hands of a communist police state, it's going to be used to strengthen that system and expand it.
So, on the one hand I have to give Sen. Sanders some credit for taking this issue seriously. Not many politicians seem to be aware where we are, on the cusp of a brave new world. But he loses a lot of points (with me at least) for not being equally clear-sighted about the danger beyond our borders. If we don't build it, they will. If we refuse to weaponize it to protect our system, they will to protect theirs.
It's the same debate the world had about the nuclear arms race. No one thinks building weapons that can destroy the world is a great outcome, but not doing so could be even worse.
~Snip~
Is Musk backing off his concerns about AI? I don't think so. In general he's just a techno-optimist. He sees the potential for disaster and worries about these issues but he also has a lot of faith in our ability to overcome the problems we face, including the ones we create for ourselves.


Commentary:
DSA Marxist Socialists and their greenies desperately don’t want energy sector expansion.
But you know the old joke, “What did people use for light before socialists invented the candle? Electricity.”
Sanders has a point - Yes!, but so did the people who claimed computers would take jobs away. They did - and jobs were also added by computers. Lots of them.
Let’s say a worst case scenario with AI is that rather than working 5 days a week 8 hours a day - we work 3 days a week 6 hours a day. Now would that really be so horrible?
DSA Marxist Socialist have long demanded a shorter work week. AI may be able to achieve that goal.
There is no stopping AI. The best anyone can hope for is good guys controlling it. Sanders and DSA Marxist Socialists are evil little fools who will make things infinity worse if we listen to them.
The other aspect that we have to consider is the increased need of electricity to run the AI Centers.
Unless we turn to nuclear generation of electricity or create other less expensive methods to generate the massive amounts of electricity needed there will be no advances or quantum leaps in technology.
Perhaps Tesla had the correct answer and get our electricity from earth itself..

 

[1srelluc]

Nary another data center should be built if it is forecast to raise the price for electricity and/or water in a community. All data centers should have their own power source.

The locals control the horizontal and vertical on permitting. No data center can be built by right.

 

[MisterBeale]

Nary another data center should be built if it is forecast to raise the price for electricity and/or water in a community. All data centers should have their own power source.

The locals control the horizontal and vertical on permitting. No data center can be built by right.

Agreed.

This was the whole point of the AGW scam from the beginning, to add charges to everyday people for their electric use, so government and corporations would have their energy and water use subsidized, while they use all that tech to put everyone not in the ruling class into a Neo-feudal technocratic police state.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

I'm not sold on AI. What I've experienced with it is shady. Certainly any AI video. They're trying to sell a bill of goods

 

[MisterBeale]

Socialists Are the New Luddites ​

(And They May Have a Point)​

Socialists Are the New Luddites (And They May Have a Point)

Exploring Bernie Sanders' call for an AI moratorium and its implications for the future of work.

hotair.com

17 Dec 2025 ~~ by John Sexton

Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video yesterday calling for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers. His pitch is that AI is being created and promoted by multi-billionaires, who are always the villains in his take on the world. He asks viewers this question: "Do you believe that these guys, these multi-billionaires are staying up nights worrying about what AI and robotics will do to the working families of our country and the world?" Sanders answers his own question, saying, "I think these very rich men want even more wealth and more power and for a whole bunch of reasons that is very dangerous."
Here's the video:

​

Regular readers know I'm not a fan of Bernie's politics. In fact, I detest socialism with a passion and I generally shrug off complaints about the wealthy as the politics of envy.
In this case, I still don't agree with Sanders but I think he does have a legitimate point. After all, the people he's quoting in that video, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, aren't know-nothing outsiders. It's literally the people who know this field who are warning that it has the potential to replace a lot of workers. That's not a worst case scenario in their view, it's the desired outcome of AI reaching a point referred to as artificial general intelligence.
~Snip~
So in this instance, Bernie isn't imagining things or cooking up scenarios that seem politically driven. He's really just agreeing with some of the people who know this field best. AI really is coming for a lot of jobs and it's going to happen a lot faster than anyone can imagine.
~Snip~
There's a problem with his outlook which Sanders doesn't mention. Letting democracy catch up to AI sounds good but there is at least one major non-democracy that is working as quickly as possible to make AI part of their system. China isn't going to stop while we have a long conversation about how to approach this. They are moving forward quickly, taking the open source designs made in the US and copying and improving on them.
Simply put, a moratorium for democracy just gives the autocrats a chance to race ahead. And what happens then could be much worse than the disruption Sanders is worried about. If you put the most powerful AI on the planet in the hands of a communist police state, it's going to be used to strengthen that system and expand it.
So, on the one hand I have to give Sen. Sanders some credit for taking this issue seriously. Not many politicians seem to be aware where we are, on the cusp of a brave new world. But he loses a lot of points (with me at least) for not being equally clear-sighted about the danger beyond our borders. If we don't build it, they will. If we refuse to weaponize it to protect our system, they will to protect theirs.
It's the same debate the world had about the nuclear arms race. No one thinks building weapons that can destroy the world is a great outcome, but not doing so could be even worse.
~Snip~
Is Musk backing off his concerns about AI? I don't think so. In general he's just a techno-optimist. He sees the potential for disaster and worries about these issues but he also has a lot of faith in our ability to overcome the problems we face, including the ones we create for ourselves.


Commentary:
DSA Marxist Socialists and their greenies desperately don’t want energy sector expansion.
But you know the old joke, “What did people use for light before socialists invented the candle? Electricity.”
Sanders has a point - Yes!, but so did the people who claimed computers would take jobs away. They did - and jobs were also added by computers. Lots of them.
Let’s say a worst case scenario with AI is that rather than working 5 days a week 8 hours a day - we work 3 days a week 6 hours a day. Now would that really be so horrible?
DSA Marxist Socialist have long demanded a shorter work week. AI may be able to achieve that goal.
There is no stopping AI. The best anyone can hope for is good guys controlling it. Sanders and DSA Marxist Socialists are evil little fools who will make things infinity worse if we listen to them.
The other aspect that we have to consider is the increased need of electricity to run the AI Centers.
Unless we turn to nuclear generation of electricity or create other less expensive methods to generate the massive amounts of electricity needed there will be no advances or quantum leaps in technology.
Perhaps Tesla had the correct answer and get our electricity from earth itself..

I agree with a lot of this, but it matters very little.

See, the problem with no government, or limited government, is those areas ruled by the most limited government, always have to expand to keep up with other areas with centralized authority, or else be over taken and subsumed by those other nations.


The US changed drastically in character once British elites got us involved in WWI & WWII. The cold war transformed our society.


It has happened over and over again in history.



So too, this is the problem with governments, society and technology. Any society and its government that refuses to embrace the most cutting edge technology, will, in the end, be defeated by those societies that do.

This is not a question of whether we should or not. . . the Chinese are going to do this, so we either compete, or be left behind.

INSANE: Bernie Sanders DEMANDS AI Data Center MORATORIUM! Robby Soave | RISING​

Premiered 2 hours ago

 

[Independent thinker]

Socialists Are the New Luddites ​

(And They May Have a Point)​

Socialists Are the New Luddites (And They May Have a Point)

Exploring Bernie Sanders' call for an AI moratorium and its implications for the future of work.

hotair.com

17 Dec 2025 ~~ by John Sexton

Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video yesterday calling for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers. His pitch is that AI is being created and promoted by multi-billionaires, who are always the villains in his take on the world. He asks viewers this question: "Do you believe that these guys, these multi-billionaires are staying up nights worrying about what AI and robotics will do to the working families of our country and the world?" Sanders answers his own question, saying, "I think these very rich men want even more wealth and more power and for a whole bunch of reasons that is very dangerous."
Here's the video:

​

Regular readers know I'm not a fan of Bernie's politics. In fact, I detest socialism with a passion and I generally shrug off complaints about the wealthy as the politics of envy.
In this case, I still don't agree with Sanders but I think he does have a legitimate point. After all, the people he's quoting in that video, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, aren't know-nothing outsiders. It's literally the people who know this field who are warning that it has the potential to replace a lot of workers. That's not a worst case scenario in their view, it's the desired outcome of AI reaching a point referred to as artificial general intelligence.
~Snip~
So in this instance, Bernie isn't imagining things or cooking up scenarios that seem politically driven. He's really just agreeing with some of the people who know this field best. AI really is coming for a lot of jobs and it's going to happen a lot faster than anyone can imagine.
~Snip~
There's a problem with his outlook which Sanders doesn't mention. Letting democracy catch up to AI sounds good but there is at least one major non-democracy that is working as quickly as possible to make AI part of their system. China isn't going to stop while we have a long conversation about how to approach this. They are moving forward quickly, taking the open source designs made in the US and copying and improving on them.
Simply put, a moratorium for democracy just gives the autocrats a chance to race ahead. And what happens then could be much worse than the disruption Sanders is worried about. If you put the most powerful AI on the planet in the hands of a communist police state, it's going to be used to strengthen that system and expand it.
So, on the one hand I have to give Sen. Sanders some credit for taking this issue seriously. Not many politicians seem to be aware where we are, on the cusp of a brave new world. But he loses a lot of points (with me at least) for not being equally clear-sighted about the danger beyond our borders. If we don't build it, they will. If we refuse to weaponize it to protect our system, they will to protect theirs.
It's the same debate the world had about the nuclear arms race. No one thinks building weapons that can destroy the world is a great outcome, but not doing so could be even worse.
~Snip~
Is Musk backing off his concerns about AI? I don't think so. In general he's just a techno-optimist. He sees the potential for disaster and worries about these issues but he also has a lot of faith in our ability to overcome the problems we face, including the ones we create for ourselves.


Commentary:
DSA Marxist Socialists and their greenies desperately don’t want energy sector expansion.
But you know the old joke, “What did people use for light before socialists invented the candle? Electricity.”
Sanders has a point - Yes!, but so did the people who claimed computers would take jobs away. They did - and jobs were also added by computers. Lots of them.
Let’s say a worst case scenario with AI is that rather than working 5 days a week 8 hours a day - we work 3 days a week 6 hours a day. Now would that really be so horrible?
DSA Marxist Socialist have long demanded a shorter work week. AI may be able to achieve that goal.
There is no stopping AI. The best anyone can hope for is good guys controlling it. Sanders and DSA Marxist Socialists are evil little fools who will make things infinity worse if we listen to them.
The other aspect that we have to consider is the increased need of electricity to run the AI Centers.
Unless we turn to nuclear generation of electricity or create other less expensive methods to generate the massive amounts of electricity needed there will be no advances or quantum leaps in technology.
Perhaps Tesla had the correct answer and get our electricity from earth itself..

He is such an idiot. He doesn't mean he wants to give democracy a chance to catch up. He means he wants to give socialism a chance to catch up.

 

[g5000]

The invention of the loom destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the electric motor destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the harvesting combine destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the automobile destroyed countless jobs, and the construction of the roads to accommodate them sucked up a lot of resources.

The invention of the computer enabled one person to do the work of 20 people. Panic! Panic!

At the time of our founding, 98 percent of Americans were involved in agriculture. Thomas Jefferson imagined it would always be that way.

Today, thanks to innovation, only 2 percent of Americans are involved in agriculture. Does that mean 96 percent of Americans are unemployed?

Nope.

Every new technology cracks open new opportunities we cannot foresee or even imagine.

Every new technology brings us less strain and hardship in our jobs, and more leisure time. So why do we keep panicking about each new leap forward?

We can use AI to cure diseases. We can use AI to solve our water problem and come up with efficient ways to desalinate water.

Stop panicking.

"The future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed." - William Gibson


.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

The invention of the loom destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the electric motor destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the harvesting combine destroyed countless jobs.

The invention of the automobile destroyed countless jobs, and the construction of the roads to accommodate them sucked up a lot of resources.

The invention of the computer enabled one person to do the work of 20 people. Panic! Panic!

At the time of our founding, 98 percent of Americans were involved in agriculture. Thomas Jefferson imagined it would always be that way.

Today, thanks to innovation, only 2 percent of Americans are involved in agriculture. Does that mean 96 percent of Americans are unemployed?

Nope.

Every new technology cracks open new opportunities we cannot foresee or even imagine.

Every new technology brings us less strain and hardship in our jobs, and more leisure time. So why do we keep panicking about each new leap forward?

We can use AI to cure diseases. We can use AI to solve our water problem and come up with efficient ways to desalinate water.

Stop panicking.

And every one of them created jobs lol

Think "support"

 

[g5000]

And every one of them created jobs lol

Think "support"

Exactly. But the job creation went far beyond support.

For every buggy whip maker thrown out of work, many more automaker jobs were created.

In my youth, only women knew how to type. Now, everyone does, thanks to the rise of computers.

By the time my kids are my age, most people probably won't even be writing or typing any more. Everything will be spoken. Reading and writing will be lost talents. Spoken language will be unrecognizable to us a hundred years from now.

Thanks to AI, people who know how to drive a car will be as rare as people today who know how to ride a horse.

I've told my kids it is possible AI will advance medicine to the point where they may live to be a thousand years old.