The other day, roughly two dozen residents of Stowe, PA, came to a town council meeting to fight a data center. Only problem: there isn’t one. And none are planned, according to town officials.
This is what happens when trust is low, misinformation is everywhere and a high conflict begins to take on a life of its own. You start seeing ghosts, and understandably so. Because in addition to water, land, pollution, energy, fairness and all the obvious and reasonable worries, there is something else going on here, driving the backlash against data centers. And until communities start to surface that understory, you can get stuck in never ending cycles of blame and hostility.
I have a new story out about a data-center conflict in Strasburg, VA, a town of just 7,000 people in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The planned development has become a rallying point across political divides in the area, for lots of good reasons. But there is a deeper need that these conflicts expose, one that will not be solved using the normal rules of policy and politics alone.
Check out the article in The Understory, a new publication I co-founded to make sense of the news, culture and ourselves.
Basically, we pour a bunch of psychology over the headlines and see what we can learn. Don’t forget to subscribe to get access to our full archive of tricks, tips and resources for staying sane in a high-conflict world.
Here’s to Ghost Data (which is also the name of an actual band, of course),
Amanda
Lowest Murder Rate Ever Recorded: Feeling depressed about the news? Make sure you keep in mind this recent newsletter by Jeff Asher, my favorite crime data analyst, about how we’re about to have the lowest homicide rate since we started counting in the 1960s. This is a massive deal, one we should be celebrating every damn day.
School Dress Code Conflicts: It’s that time of year! My co-founder Hélène Biandudi Hofer investigates the understory of a fight in a Florida school district over a controversial new dress code. (My favorite line: “I don’t think this was actually about the leggings.”)
A Victory for the People: Just three days after introducing an appalling new AI tool that allowed users to generate deep fakes from other people’s Instagram photos (without permission!), Meta withdrew the feature. One small step for Meta, one giant step for humankind.
© 2026 Amanda Ripley. See privacy, terms and information collection notice.
Top Image: Man looking at a brochure at the White House Conference on Library and Information Services in November 1979. Credit: Marion S.Trikosko, Library of Congress
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