Culture Wars
“Culture Wars” – A cartoon that illustrates how people can hold strongly opposing views, each grounded in what they see as informed knowledge, yet still arrive at completely different interpretations of the same facts.
Humans like to believe disagreement comes from missing facts and that access to the same information should eventually bring us closer to the same truth. However, once an idea becomes an article of faith, new evidence is often interpreted through the narrative already sitting in our heads. Research led by Yale’s Dan Kahan found that people with the strongest scientific literacy and quantitative reasoning can become more polarized on contested issues, suggesting that knowledge can make us better at defending an existing worldview rather than reconsidering it.
The current controversy around data centres is a good example. Sam Altman recently argued that concerns over AI’s water consumption are badly exaggerated, claiming that 38,000 ChatGPT queries use roughly the same amount of water as producing a single California almond. The comparison has been challenged because estimates of both AI and agricultural water use vary widely, but it captures one side of the argument. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders reaches almost the opposite conclusion. He has called for a federal moratorium on new AI data centres, warning that they will have a “profound impact” on land and water, drive up electricity costs and contribute to what he describes as a potentially “catastrophic impact” of AI on working Americans.
Both can find evidence for their case. Berkeley Lab estimates data centres consumed about 4.4% of US electricity in 2023, while Loudoun County, Virginia, says data centres generated $1.2BN in local tax revenue in 2026, representing 39% of its overall budget.
Therefore, the question is not which side has facts, because both sides of this debate have lots of them to bring to the table. It is which facts people choose to emphasise, how they measure them and which consequences they decide matter most. Kahan called this a “culture war of facts, not values.”
