Luddites weren’t against new technology, they were against the aristocrats using new technology as a tool or excuse to oppress and kill the labor class. The problem is not the new technology, the problem is that people were dying of hunger and being laid off in droves. Destroying the machinery, which almost always they were the operators of when working on said aristocrat’s factories, was an act of protest, just like a riot, or a strike. It was a form of collective bargaining.
Luddites weren’t against new technology, they were against the aristocrats using new technology as a tool or excuse to oppress and kill the labor class. The problem is not the new technology, the problem is that people were dying of hunger and being laid off in droves. Destroying the machinery, which almost always they were the operators of when working on said aristocrat’s factories, was an act of protest, just like a riot, or a strike. It was a form of collective bargaining.