this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Alright fine, I'll be a Luddite now. Every time we 'upgrade' or 'make progress' it is really about controling the working class and circumventing a previous business model. Capital pays more and more for the inputs: fuel and technology, in order to justify their control. And then once they have it, they use progress to justify poor labor protections. They never use the predicted best solution, or even a compromise, they use the solution that offers them more power.
Don't be a Luddite: be a socialist.
Because the entire problem with luddites is blaming the wrong cause.
Automation of menial labor is the best possible thing that can happen to humanity, and to the humans working those jobs.
Except our system is so fucked that "no job" = "go die on the streets you worthless layabout"
Every job lost to automation should be celebrated by a socialist society, as it means more of us are moving up Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
That's how I've felt for a long time. What a stupid world we've built where reducing the number of jobs is considered a bad thing.
And yet the only thing political parties across nations can agree on is they want more jobs.
You can be both, and a lot of us are. A Luddite wouldn't be opposed to the automation of jobs in a socialist society, nobody is being exploited in that case.
We question and oppose the tech right now because that isn't the society we live in. It isn't really about the tech at all, it's about who controls it and how they're using it.
Luddites do not offer solutions: Socialists do.
Don't waste effort opposing tech when you could spend effort promoting socialism: You won't oppose tech anymore than the Luddites did (IE with limited initial success followed by absolute annihilation)
Socialists have actually been successful, unlike Luddites.