Dr. Damien P. Williams, MagusFeb 4, 2024

The term "Luddite" has become synonymous with "technophobe" but that's not what the Luddites were about. They were a labour movement that fought to give workers control over the technology that was advancing without oversight and rapidly automating them out of their jobs. Sound familiar?

"Luddite" as a pejorative was a technocrat PR coup.

Show threadpancakes🔜BedFeb 5, 2024
@Wolven Pirates are kinda similar, its like there is a pattern here.
Show threadhazelnot Feb 5, 2024

@squeakypancakes @Wolven I'm curious about what you mean, I looked it up and it seems like "pirate" has always meant what it does now

Unless you're talking about media "piracy"?

Show threadSwift (will be at EMF)Feb 5, 2024
@hazelnot @squeakypancakes @Wolven I think that one's less a change in how people understand a term and more who was labelled a pirate / what their motivations were (i.e. a lot of pirate crews were pretty rad, and most of the ones that weren't were privateers).
Show threadhazelnot Feb 5, 2024
@swift @squeakypancakes @Wolven I know pirates were often actually really cool, but I'm still not sure what they meant or what you mean, sorry 💀
Show threadSwift (will be at EMF)
@hazelnot @squeakypancakes @Wolven the public understanding of Luddite has shifted, from who they actually were (p. cool) to a disparaging interpretation. The meaning of the word pirate hasn't shifted in the same way, but it was consciously applied to disparage pretty cool groups (for somewhat similar reasons, namely that they threatened power structures).
Feb 5, 2024 at 2:12pmWeb