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Re:Coarse Is Better by loeg on Sunday December 21, 2025 @02:05PM (#46347309)
GP is saying mass unemployment caused by technology hasn't happened, not that the Luddites weren't a real historical group.
Re:Coarse Is Better by pchangr on Sunday December 21, 2025 @02:32PM (#46347559)
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.
Re:Coarse Is Better by loeg on Sunday December 21, 2025 @02:33PM (#46347575)
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

Re:Coarse Is Better by coldtea on Sunday December 21, 2025 @04:01PM (#46348388)
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.
Re:Coarse Is Better by loeg on Monday December 22, 2025 @02:17PM (#46357699)
Even "all textile workers" was never a large fraction of "all workers."