The Luddites, AI, and The Power of Narrative Control

About this episode

What do 19th century weavers and 21st century tech workers have in common? More than you might think. In this episode, we unpack the real story behind the Luddites, skilled artisans who weren’t afraid of machines but deeply aware of how those machines were being used to undercut their labor and erase their way of life. Their protests were met not just with force, but with a powerful narrative campaign that branded them as backwards and irrational.

Two hundred years later, the same pattern shows up in conversations about AI. When writers, designers, and even tech insiders raise concerns about automation, safety, or fairness, they’re often dismissed with the same tired insult: “Don’t be a Luddite.” But what if that label is more about shutting down the conversation than engaging with it?

We explore how narrative framing has been used historically, and still is today, to marginalize dissent and smooth the path for so-called progress. From Hollywood strikes to tech whistleblowers to protestors stacking rocks in front of food delivery robots, this is a story about what happens when you challenge the dominant script.

Attribution Notes:

• Every effort was made to cross-check primary sources and modern research. Where paraphrasing is used, it’s drawn from the texts below with narrative license for clarity and flow.
• If you spot an error or have a source to suggest, DM @thisagainshow

 

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This, Again is written, produced, and hosted by Mallory Faust. 

 

Sources & Further Reading:

• Kirkpatrick Sale - Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution (for a deep historical take on Luddism)
• P. Thompson - The Making of the English Working Class (classic work that situates movements like the Luddites in broader context)
• Eric Hobsbawm - Labouring Men (insight into labor history and collective action in the industrial age)
• Brian Merchant, Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.
• MIT Technology Review - “Stop calling people Luddites” (on why the term is misleading today): https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-future-encyclopedia-of-luddism/
• Richard Conniff, “What the Luddites Really Fought Against,” Smithsonian Magazine (March 2011) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
• Smithsonian Magazine - “When Robots Take All of Our Jobs, Remember the Luddites” (for context on the so-called “Luddite fallacy” debate in economics): When Robots Take All of Our Jobs, Remember the Luddites
• National Geographic - “Before AI skeptics, Luddites raged against the machine… literally” (Oct 2023) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/luddite-industrial-revolution-anti-technology
• The Luddites' 200th birthday - The Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bernard-marszalek-the-luddites-200th-birthday
• Destroy the machines! The Luddites' violent reaction to new technology: https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/year/9/luddites/?srsltid=AfmBOor_Gy6rqaWj5in-SZSKfYPAVKKV4IQrIjFq1VuOqujc9odrTMIE
• Machine-breaking in England and France, 1789-1817: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wsfh/0642292.0031.009/--understanding-crowd-action-machine-breaking-in-england?rgn=main;view=fulltext
• Bonus: The legend that French workers threw wooden shoes (sabots) into machines - often cited as the origin of the word sabotage. It’s apocryphal but illustrates how long this impulse of “man vs. machine” has been around in folklore.