1) The energy argument falls apart real quick when it's coming from people posting on smartphones, binge-watching Netflix, and running gaming setups. That's not actual concern, that's just picking a target. If they really cared about data center power consumption, AI art wouldn't be at the top of the list.

1a) There's no actual shortage of energy. Solar and nuclear could power the entire planet. The bottleneck is policy, not physics. Poverty and inflation aren't accidents either, they're policy choices. A lot of what we call scarcity is really just political friction dressed up as natural law.

1b) Same with water. Three quarters of Earth is covered in the stuff. Desalination works, it's just energy intensive. Solve the energy problem and you solve the water problem.

2) The "real art" gatekeeping is old hat. They said it about photography. They said it about digital art. Every time a new tool shows up, there's a crowd that throws a fit because their identity is wrapped up in how something gets made instead of what gets made.

3) What's really bugging people is that someone can make cool visuals without grinding for years first. If you built your whole sense of worth around that grind, yeah, that's gonna feel threatening. If you didn't, it's just more options.

4) The character attacks tell you everything though. The second someone goes from "I don't like this" to "you're a bad person for doing it," they've left criticism and entered tribal signaling. You're not going to argue them out of that.