Anon OpinJan 14
Luddite shouldn't be used as a insult anymore. They were right about more than most of us are willing to admit.
Show threadargonautJan 15

@anon_opin in The Luddites (1970), Malcom Thomis argues that the luddites were not against the machines, but in favour of a better collective contract, and the destruction was the sole effective way to bargain.

https://archive.org/details/ludditesmachineb0000thom/page/13/mode/1up

Show threadReindeR RustemaJan 15
@argonaut @anon_opin How to attack the machines of Big Tech apart from rerouting around them?
Show threadGerardJan 18
@rrustema @argonaut @anon_opin I am absolutely not suggesting this (!), but surely they could be attacked in the same way that the luddites did: by physically damaging / destroying data centres and deliveries to them.
I also suggest that the response would be the same: very well funded private armies responding to violence with yet more violence.
Perhaps a different question could be asked: What could the luddites have done differently? What alternatives might have been more successful?
Show threadargonaut

@GerardThornley @rrustema @anon_opin
all very good questions.

also a good question—to me: if the tsunami is coming your way, how much time you want to spend fighting the wave, and how much getting you and others to a safe place? i definitely would spend more time on the latter, given that tsunamis are usually unstoppable.

Jan 18 at 1:22pmIvory for iOS
Show threadReindeR RustemaJan 18

@argonaut @GerardThornley @anon_opin Yes, what Victor says. How to make masses of people move away from big tech?

My first thought is that non-US governments should set the example by moving away everything they have and do from big tech. This is something that could be written into law.