factory discipline was the actual product. the machines didn't create the sweatshop, the factory owner did. luddites understood that. the sarcastic quote is defending something that didn't exist until capital decided it should.

Similar situation during the 1826 uprising that followed. Good details on that here: History - Weavers Uprising share.google/evmNJ380imPt...

The luddites worked at home, with their families, where they had the freedom to set their own schedules, or in small shops with their peers. One of the main things luddites were fighting against was the *creation* of sweatshop conditions, which was only enabled by mass mechanization + factorization!

I really really enjoyed talking luddite horror + sci fi with Alix for her pod, Computer Says Maybe

The rehabilitation of the luddites is a beautiful thing

Needless to say, I've very much looking forward to this one

"The use of ChatGPT for scientific purposes... clashes with core scientific integrity principles such as honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, responsibility, and independence. Therefore, I need to decline this invitation to review."

Always love to see more worker-owned indy media taking off. Check out Ravenous:

* CAPTAIN ADMITS HE DIDN’T KNOW HE COULD USE MULTIPLE SLURPS ON SINGLE APE

Small drone attacks are killing more civilians around the world than ever before. I made a map about it:

this timeline man

They realized they were about to lose everyone but the most deadened dull-eyed MAGA acolytes

A @kimkelly.bsky.social byline is always an automatic click for me but this @orionmagazine.bsky.social piece on building solidarity across climate and labor is SO GOOD.

So we talked to the author of the 25th amendment. (89 years young!) And we went through the text. It solved a real problem, but it wasn't the problem we have right now. I'd like a deus ex machina for what we're going through too, but this ain't it. From Moe Tkacik and I: prospect.org/2026/04/07/w...

You have more in common with the people of Iran than you do with anyone in this administration, any member of the technocracy, anyone who is profiting from this war, or any billionaire. When you see Iranians forming human chains outside key infrastructure sites, you should feel a sense of kinship.

The matter-of-fact way she asks what investors should do if Trump destroys Iran. Absolutely wild. "Let's talk about tonight, this deadline that President Trump has set 8 p.m., has threatened to destroy a civilization. How does an investor process that? Is it a bigger upside risk or downside risk?"

wrote about a big fight brewing in New York

Takes a lot to truly unnerve these days but the "a whole civilization will die" line is a new plane of horrific. Even if it is just rhetoric, which I would not bet on, it feels like a sign of some last vestige being blown away. The US openly and eagerly announcing itself as monstrous

Subscribed, and looking forward to the last book. Will add that Before the Storm in particular was a big influence for how I conceived and approached BLOOD IN THE MACHINE. Really excellent.

This news being announced on a Polymarket feed makes it all the more perfect

"The questions we are litigating now are less ‘is this AI product good or bad’ and more ‘we have seen what it can do, and do we want AI to exist in this space at all?’" writes @bcmerchant.bsky.social on the shift from rejection to refusal of AI that he documents across different domains.

an AI company announced today they’re cancelling plans to build a data center in my city’s downtown that had been strongly opposed by residents the spark is catching flame, don’t stop now 🔥

hear hear!

Slowing Ai at the grass roots and fundamental level of data centers will do a favor for education.

Some delightful refusal/permission for refusal seen around the neighborhood lately

A reliable metric for a losing war: notice how often a combatant describes inputs (ordinance dropped, resources committed, duration of operation) as a substitute for outputs (effects a military operation is intending to produce).

Is it just my connection or blown up servers in the middle east or is bluesky running particularly poorly today

“I can’t help but wonder if we’re seeing a reawakening of our capacity for mass refusal. As it becomes clearer that AI promises to be an implement of automation; of worker exploitation and knowledge degradation; an enormous energy and resource consumer; a tremendous engine of wealth transfer.”

I love this framing. Refusal works. We have agency when we refuse and it’s empowering to refuse. We strengthened our refusal muscles in MN against ICE and I’m going to keep using them. “And what’s particularly interesting to me is how the politics appear to be moving from rejection to refusal.”

Does anyone have a lead on an environmental survey company around Sacramento California, USA to affordably do a baseline survey of our property? There are plans to build one a half mile from our place. I know there will be a lot more truck traffic (is will be a biogen plant to power the data center)

This highlights how ICE, which does not have a contract with Flock, continues to get access to Flock’s AI-powered license plate scanning cameras through local and state police. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Story by @jasonkoebler.bsky.social: www.404media.co/floridas-wil...

Movements to shut down or ban data centers are amassing power and notching victories. Wikipedia has banned AI-generated content in articles. Publishers and entertainment studios are being pushed to reject AI-produced content outright. In other words: It's open season for refusing AI.

making human labor invisible is one of the cardinal sins of our day. fantasy worlds with no evidence of work and workers are eerie and inhumane, and should ping our warning centers. no universe is all leisure. someone always works when someone else plays.

“One of the great ironies of the AI age, such as it is, is that it wound up looking like shit.”

Love the title.

"But AI (and the metaverse, and web 3) must be seen not as novel innovations but as new attempts by the same investor and developer class at extracting value from their past successes, at seeking out new revenue sources amid an already digitally saturated world."

Or maybe the "core userbase" is someone else? techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/b...

This is very funny but it's also yet another reminder of the fundamental misalignment of this site's leadership and its core user base, which I imagine will cause legitimate and potentially existential problems down the road

I love this for them.

ABS is good because it's not human v robot. It's one human's judgment v another human's judgment and the robot is the judge. I think it's highlighting baseball's human element & adding new strategy. Side effect is the umpires get humiliated, but it's cinema. no notes www.404media.co/you-cant-def...

my brand new "woke evopsych" hypothesis is that the uncanny valley evolved specifically to save us from AI :p

OpenAI's Sora and Meta's metaverse were shuttered the same week. Both were defined by an aesthetic that embodies Silicon Valley's current project: to undermine labor, replace art + lived experience with digital facsimiles, and extract value at any cost. And users recoiled at the mere sight of them.

This is the way

OH MY HEART...the Oberlin Luddites Reject "The Year of AI Exploration"! 💚

Cartoon villainy continues apace.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico jury finds Meta's platforms are harmful to children's mental health and imposes $375 million penalty.

What We Will is co-designing this pilot alongside the AI Commons Project. We’re a worker center for people impacted by the AI economy, organizing and offering support through programs led by and for workers.

Can we also just get universal healthcare?