3 ms·

Gunned down? No. Ignored and shunned? Absolutely.

• __loam 3y ago
  Anyone who thinks this is absolutely missing the point. The luddites are maligned today because of propaganda bought by big businesses of the time. They weren't just mad about losing their job, they were mad because they were working in horrific conditions in the factories that supposedly represented "progress". They didn't just blindly hate technology.
  • kromem 3y ago
    You can see in their own letters how it evolved over time into a broader political movement, but started out very much focused on the idea that new technology was going to be taking work away and thus they were opposing the new technology: https://faculty.humanities.uci.edu/bjbecker/spinningweb/week8d.html https://faculty.humanities.uci.edu/bjbecker/spinningweb/week... It's only later on that their focus shifted to where it belonged on the more institutional issues leading to such dire circumstances in the first place.