Snatch Numan
Anon OpinMost people use the term, "luddite" incorrectly. A luddite wasn't against technology, as you all seem to think they were, but against needless technology ruining people's livelihoods and churning out bad quality shite. Given the state of 2025, we should all aspire to be luddites.
Tomas Ekeli
Chumbawamba - The Triumph Of General Ludd
Scott@anon_opin For the most part, the Luddites would smash up machines that were more efficient and were taking jobs from the working class. Nothing to do with the quality of the machines’ output. Luddites were trying to protect their livelihoods, not protesting shoddy quality.
Witold Kowalik@scottearle @anon_opin
Whilst you are correct about protecting the workers livehood, it is also true that the shoddy quality was tied to those looms making worse quality fabric as the innovation was speed. In the beginning Luddites also advocated for retaining a smaller force of skilled and trained workers as this would benefit the quality of products but in the end it didn't happen, and all of those workers were replaced by mostly children and mostly from orphanages - unskilled, underpaid and mostly thrown away after loosing a limp or two. Quality didn't matter to the factory lords, profit did.
Whilst you are correct about protecting the workers livehood, it is also true that the shoddy quality was tied to those looms making worse quality fabric as the innovation was speed. In the beginning Luddites also advocated for retaining a smaller force of skilled and trained workers as this would benefit the quality of products but in the end it didn't happen, and all of those workers were replaced by mostly children and mostly from orphanages - unskilled, underpaid and mostly thrown away after loosing a limp or two. Quality didn't matter to the factory lords, profit did.
delProfundo@anon_opin I’m a technologist Luddite.
Sabrina Web 
📎@anon_opin I like to define myself a technoluddite
Juan Per¢ent,🇲🇽 🍉,🇻🇪@anon_opin Firmly against techno-fixes
Dawkins' Basilisk@anon_opin the demonisation of the Luddites is capitalist propaganda
Schroedingers_Cat@anon_opin Completely agree - and I have posted about this before. Luddites were not just anti-tech.
They were anti- abuse-of-people-with-tech.
They were anti-tech-bros. They were not anti AI, they were anti-LLM-hype.
I am totally a Luddite. I work in IT, so people find this strange.
m_on_stair@SteveClough @anon_opin
this is simply wrong
i am personally leaning more on the anti-AI side (even though I do use it) but dont retrofit historical fact to fit your narrative.
this is simply wrong
i am personally leaning more on the anti-AI side (even though I do use it) but dont retrofit historical fact to fit your narrative.
George Liquor, American@anon_opin Not correct. The Luddites did not like the fact that the technology was being used only to empower the ownership class, leaving workers to struggle further.
Luddites were against tech that they knew would never be used for their benefit. And this is incredibly relevant today.
L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ@liquor_american @anon_opin So, mostly correct (with the only part differing is the quality cousin).
@Mabande @anon_opin That's a significant difference, don't you think
@liquor_american @anon_opin Could be, but then again, why double down when you're wrong? "They confined their attacks to manufacturers who used machines in what they called “a fraudulent and deceitful manner” to get around standard labor practices. “They just wanted machines that made high-quality goods, and they wanted these machines to be run by workers who had gone through an apprenticeship and got paid decent wages. Those were their only concerns.”"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
estelle@anon_opin suppose you went home one day, inspired by some books you've read, and you invent a device that automates a repetitive part of your job
suppose you bring this to work one day and your productivity increases by a factor of 20
to your absolute shocking dismay, your pay does not increase by a factor of 20
this state of shock could be accurately described as luddism
@anon_opin this makes modern luddism all the more interesting, because the employer bought the machine, and in fact, it tanks productivity, but the boss is going to try and devalue you anyways,
dragosr@anon_opin @tim_lavoie Luddite history was much more complicated than we remember - and far from any romanticization you may ascribe to. It was a gender struggle as much as a technology one.
Predominantly male Luddites started smashing the wide frame looms and cropping frames that the owners could pay back in one season with lower skilled help - women and children. The other factor was switching from river power to coal fired steam which relocated the work to urban centers from rural.
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Framework knitters/weavers; all required multi-year apprenticeships and were “very highly paid."
Part of the struggle was legal deregulation of appreticeships that mill owners drove - by 1830 >50% of loom workers were women and children, and they were producing twice as much per capita as traditional loom workers. Very tough to compete against.
Industrialisation, war-time inflation and grain shortages created the powder-charge; the new machines were the detonator.
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Ygor@anon_opin @pluralistic recently explained that: https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/27/rancid-vibe-coding/
Moonshine Fox@anon_opin YES! I’ve been trying to correct people on this for years now.