A week ago, hating AI was a niche opinion. Now it’s the mood of the room — booed commencement speakers, data-center protests, even the Pope. Chris and Des name the new stigma, break down the four reasons the backlash blew up, and draw the Cold War parallels — all while admitting they both use AI and feel conflicted about it. Honest, funny, and a little dystopian. Is AI the new Scarlet Letter?
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https://substack.com/@chrisabevolo 

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Timestamps:
0:00 — Cold open
2:30 — Hot take: does an audiobook count as reading?
7:30 — The “Scarlet AI” and why the backlash exploded
17:30 — Reason 1: Job displacement
37:00 — Reason 2: The environment
42:30 — Reason 3: Data centers (and Kevin O’Leary’s Utah problem)
46:00 — Reason 4: The men leading AI
56:00 — Where does this go? Nuclear, the Cold War, and unions
1:09:00 — The capitalist endgame
1:15:30 — Wrap: “Womp Womp”

Resources: 

Kevin O’Leary goes after Utah protesters: https://x.com/kevinolearytv/status/2051667709574733826?s=20 ; https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/box-elder-county/utah-data-center-investor-kevin-oleary-accuses-opposition-groups-of-being-funded-by-china 

Two women fight back against O’Leary: https://substack.com/@rawstory/note/c-259135278 

Critical Thinking In the Age of AI: https://criticalthinkingintheageofai.com/ ; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-thinking-in-the-age-of-ai/id1865503703 

Marc Andreessen on Joe Rogan Clip: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYvU5evMr3m/ 

https://www.focusfeatures.com/the-ai-doc-or-how-i-became-an-apocaloptimist 

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-american-rebellion-against-ai-is-gaining-steam-94b72529 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/25/pope-says-ai-must-be-disarmed-to-prevent-domination-exclusion-and-death 

https://www.axios.com/2026/05/17/ai-backlash-polling-sentiment 

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/hating-ai-is-good-actually 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/style/gen-z-ai-gallup-study.html 

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-american-rebellion-against-ai-is-gaining-steam-94b72529 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/ai-giving-rise-wild-range-152928957.html 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/utah-approves-datacenter-backlash 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx 

https://substack.com/@rawstory/note/c-259135278?r=lqfh9&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/utah-data-center-mr-wonderful-kevin-oleary-1235564105/ 

Produced by Julia Bevolo