No, there was nothing "super cool" about the Luddites. Stop trying to rehabilitate these thugs. Failing that, do it someplace other than a site called "Hacker News."

There's nothing wrong with resisting bad working conditions, unfair pay, or getting replaced by a machine without adequate social safety nets in place.

If businesses decide to replace workers with AI, then it's also their collective responsibility to pay for their retraining, or if that isn't possible their social security.

The Luddite "thugs" were the ones that were getting murdered by the people they were protesting against, a protest which happened because they were about to be replaced while already working in extremely dangerous conditions with terrible compensation.

It's telling that the AI sycophants side with the group that was actually murdering people, however.

Luddites were highly educated, skilled workers whose work was being replaced by machines. They just wanted to operate the machines and share in the increased productivity.

There's absolutely no parallels here, to AI. A machine that is taking work from highly skilled labor ohhhh wait

Part of the hacker ethos is being counter to mainstream and challenging authority. Luddites fit in with that perfectly.