> The ethical issues around AI don't seem any different than the rest of modern capitalism.

Let's fix that while we're at it too. I'm a bit tired of the "we already ruined this much. What's one more broken window" handwave. Let's start fixing windows instead.

>It's difficult to escape the conclusion that the difference is that the harm from those other industries mostly accrues to the poor and the working class, whereas AI is threatening the livelihoods of rich, educated westerners who thought their social status insulated them from economic shocks like this.

If you somehow assume that these people never cared about fossil fuels, manufacturing, unethical farming, etc. Yes. It can be easy to make that conclusion. Yet somehow, those have all been hot button issues for 30+ years at this point. Maybe they simply see an old pattern emerging to repeat yet again?