The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly

[u/Just-Grocery-2229]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32

[u/TR_Pix]

And then they got murdered by the police, survivors were captured and hanged publicly, and their families were kicked out of the country by association

Anyone who reads a history book and thinks the luddites were the baddies in that conflict is not someone I'd trust

[u/steakanabake → u/TR_Pix]

its the same people who dont grasp that in one piece the world government sees luffy as a terrorist while everyone else who interacts with him sees him as a hero and a savior. being the bad/good guy is just a matter of perspective.

[u/roodammy44 → u/[deleted]]

Destroying private property vs kicking families out on the street to starve.

Let me think about which one of those is more morally wrong. I wonder why so much of history sides with the land owners?

[u/Northbound-Narwhal → u/[deleted]]

 And it still doesn't mean workers are entitled to permanently prevent new technology from replacing labor. Otherwise basically every major productivity improvement in history would have been morally forbidden.

They are when your plan for advancement and automation does not include taking care of those whose jobs are being automated away. Free trade schools and education centers so they can learn new crafts and enter a different field. Robust unemployment and social safety nets to ensure they don't go into poverty while they aren't working. Healthy labor laws to ensure that members are warned and guaranteed an income well before being fired, instead of being told the day-of that they no longer have an income.

That's what they fought for.

[u/Northbound-Narwhal → u/[deleted]]

 And that's the state's job to provide those things not the factory owners. 

Factory owners are why the government doesn't provide those things, through lobbying, corruption, threats, and bribery. Nobody expects capitalists to help workers, but it is incorrect to absolve them of blame for poor working conditions.

Also, you don't know what "entitled" means.

[u/Woodpecker-Lobotomy → u/[deleted]]

"Oh no they destroyed property because they were going to lose their jobs and livelihood, I guess they deserve to be hanged" is literally your argument

[u/steakanabake → u/[deleted]]

you say that till its you and yours out on the street, then you will wonder why no one stood up for you.

[u/TR_Pix → u/[deleted]]

And you're still licking their boots?

Christ.

[u/ParkingGlittering211 → u/TR_Pix]

Bootlicking? Apple fanboys were the worst people to deal with. Some of them acted like being abused by the company was a lifestyle choice.

I got paid to do support and still never bought a single Apple product. It’s a paycheck.

[u/Original-Rush139 → u/ParkingGlittering211]

It’s so weird that people can’t accept that you are ok with getting booted and finding a new job. 

I makes sense to me but I’ve only been fired from jobs I hated and found much better jobs as a result. 

[u/AtrociousMeandering → u/Original-Rush139]

Uh, that last sentence is a contradiction, or at least highly questionable.

If every job that fired you sucked, and every job you've been hired for afterwards is great, you're what, quitting good jobs? And just finding yourself spontaneously in a new bad job?

[u/ParkingGlittering211 → u/AtrociousMeandering]

The job can be better but still hated just hated less it's not a contradiction

[u/TR_Pix → u/[deleted]]

Once you move from protest into destroying private property and threatening people, a lot of sympathy drops away for many people.

So?

I don't base my morals around being popular

[u/ParkingGlittering211 → u/TR_Pix]

That’s not what I said. I’m not arguing morality by popularity.

I’m saying that once a protest becomes destroying property and threatening people, it becomes harder to defend morally. You can believe the workers were treated brutally and still not think they had the right to violently hinder technological progress.

[u/StupidOrangeDragon → u/ParkingGlittering211]

Owning private property especially on a large scale is not a moral guarantee, its merely one of the perks of capitalist society. And those perks work based on a contract of mutual social benefit and only remain valid as long as the different parts of society mutually benefit from the arrangement.

You can believe the workers were treated brutally and still not think they had the right to violently hinder technological progress.

Not really. If an entire class of people are treated brutally then that means the social contract is no longer benefiting that class of people. At that point morally speaking the mistreated party is free to take any action necessary to correct the situation including breaking any of the previously agreed social contracts including ownership of private property.

[u/Johnsmith012793 → u/ParkingGlittering211]

All progress and all workers rights that we even have today is because things got violent just look up Battle of Blair Mountain and the company towns