U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson recently sparked a fierce backlash after claiming that opposition to data centers in the country is being led by a “Chinese psyops” campaign. These claims deeply irritated Louisiana residents, and many asked others not to vote for Johnson again, adding to what they consider to be his long list of lies.
In a recent interview with Fox Business, Johnson discussed the current backlash against data centers. He was asked whether he believed that the opposition was being led by China, and Johnson agreed. According to him, “this is what Democrats do every election cycle,” finding a topic that is more worrisome than it actually is.
He also claimed that he does not “buy it,” as the opposition is really a “Chinese psyop,” not a conspiracy theory, and that China is really pushing these ideas into the United States.
Louisiana Reacts to Mike Johnson’s Recent Claims
Louisiana residents on r/Louisiana were far from happy to see Mike Johnson diminishing what they saw as the dangers of data centers and “lying” to people. One user wrote: “Didn’t they say the same thing about climate change?” Another one said: “Psyop has been being thrown around a lot lately; almost like there’s a psyop to desensitize us from the word psyop enabling psyops to be run more psyoply.”
Many had harsh words for the Republican: “What about Mike Johnson and his ‘Christian’ psyop? Seems to be more dangerous.” Some even urged people from the state not to support another term for the politician: “Come on Louisiana, please do better in November.”
Some users made fun of the Trump administration’s relationship with China, saying: “Wait, was rolling out the red carpet for Xi a Chinese psyop too? I’m really confused about the GOP stance on China.”
Others were not entirely convinced it was not a psyop, but disagreed with Johnson all the same: “It can be true that there are very REAL reasons to be opposing AI data centers, that the Chinese are trying to promote and stimulate opposition to data centers for competitive advantage, and that Mike Johnson is a sycophantic dangerous disaster. All these things can be true at the same time.”
As anti-data center sentiment continues to grow ahead of the November election, it remains to be seen how this will affect Johnson and the GOP.
