[suthakamal]

They were wrong to believe that technological progress could be stopped. The viable path is policy which ensures the gains are fairly distributed, not try to break the machines. That tactic has never and will never work.

[xg15]

> The viable path is policy which ensures the gains are fairly distributed, not try to break the machines.

This was exactly what the historical Luddite movement was trying to archive. The industrialists responded with "lol no". Then came the breaking of machines.

[NegativeLatency]

I don't want to start a snippy argument, so sorry if this sounds combative, but when you realize that there isn't a "policy which ensures the gains are fairly distributed", then what would you suggest?

Unionization and collective action does work, it's why we have things like the concept of the weekend. It's also generally useful when advocating change to have a more extreme faction.

[suthakamal]

ranked choice voting is a good start. The new york mayoral primary is a hopeful sign.

[zorked]

  But the Luddites themselves “were totally fine with machines,” says Kevin Binfield, editor of the 2004 collection Writings of the Luddites. 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,” says Binfield, “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-rea...

[DrillShopper]

> The viable path is policy which ensures the gains are fairly distributed

Okay, so where are those? Where are even the proposals for those?

What would you propose? What do you think is fair distribution of these gains?

[suthakamal]

High taxes, and ranked choice voting. New York's mayoral primary is a hopeful sign to me.

[jrflowers]

This is a good point. When has breaking stuff and disrupting productivity as a form of protest ever worked? It’s not like battles are fought with violence. They are fought through people doing Policy in their heads, which sort of just naturally becomes Policy out in the world on its own.

[suthakamal]

I'm not saying protest doesn't work. I'm saying rejecting technology never has.