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GP is saying mass unemployment caused by technology hasn't happened, not that the Luddites weren't a real historical group.

• pchangr 11mo ago
  Correct, and I am saying the Luddites were a group of people that suffered mass unemployment following a technological change. Specifically, the luddites were a group of 19th century textile workers that were left out of work due to the introduction of automated machinery in the textile industry. In other words, they are a perfect example of what GP claims hasn’t happened.
  • loeg 11mo ago
    A small group is not "mass unemployment" -- that's the point. > In a British textile industry that employed a million people, the [Luddite] movement’s numbers never rose above a couple of thousand. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/rage-against-the-machine https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/rage-against-the-machine
    • coldtea 11mo ago
      The "never rose above a couple of thousand" small group refers to the number of activist Luddites. It doesn't refer to the people working in the textile industry in general - which was a big group, and which was heavily affected.
      • loeg 11mo ago
        Even "all textile workers" was never a large fraction of "all workers."