They were idiots trying to maintain a poverty based system simply because they weren't on the very lowest rung. They were also proven very wrong, demand for textiles increased dramatically as prices fell and areas where there had been nothing but privation flourished into affluent communities with longer lifespans, better wages and improved living conditions for everyone even the lowest classes - this resulted in improvements literacy amoung the poor and resulted in the erosion of the class system as the early industrial era matured.

If the luddities had won we'd all be far worse off now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You are conflating technology and its benefits with the owning class's misuse of that technology. Capitalist apologists love to do this because otherwise the crimes of capitalism would have to stand on their own and there would be no defending them.

It's exactly this conflation that lets people claim that the luddites were entirely anti-technology, but they weren't. Again this is a lie that has been spread by capitalists to defend their own image.

The luddites were killed and suppressed by the military and the government made industrial sabotage a capital offense, and then slandered them. Maybe if they'd won we'd live in a world where reporters weren't murdered over the Panama papers for instance.