Keep Austin Weird

Yeah, from what people know the scene now.

I mean, when I first got there, it felt more, you know, the Keep Austin Weird motto felt true.

It felt weird.

It felt indie.

I know that Paxton has had to make a radical shift on data centers because he, like everybody else, had been very supportive of data centers in Texas and now has to pretend like he isn't.

How is that issue playing out, especially in somewhere like Austin, where I can imagine you've got kind of the, you know, that weird horseshoe of the Keep Austin Weird lefties who don't like data centers, but also the extremely pro-Trump but lightly paranoid people who also don't like data centers?

I, I think the big story, you know, as in other places, specifi- specifically in Texas of data centers, is these kind of rural, uh, you know- Kind of suburban, you know, the, these rural parts of the state.

And, you know, the, again, I covered, uh, a big fight for that in, in, uh, central Texas or North Texas a few months ago, uh, where they're trying to build these, you know, 150-foot power lines that are gonna connect across the state to data centers.

Austin has the state government, the University of Texas, a massive tech sector, and a political culture that's been proudly countercultural for decades.

The slogan there used to be, Keep Austin Weird.

That's not a neutral statement.

I've heard that slogan.

Are people falling for this? Yeah, listen, I know you have pockets of very liberal areas.

You know, they have like, Keep Austin Weird.

I get it.

I spent a lot of time in Texas, like a huge amount of time in Texas.

The word translated confusion there carries a sense of disorder, disturbance, instability, or tumult.

As I was praying into that word, that sense over Austin, that there was a spirit of chaos, I was reminded of the phrase we all know, the catchphrase for Austin, "Keep Austin weird." We laugh about it.

It's on bumper stickers.

It's on T-shirts and hats and signs and painted on the sides of buildings.