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by _wldu 1904 days ago
A better term than Luddite may be obstructionist. Hackers object to new technology due to their disagreeing with everything Cloud, Tracking, limited user rights, DRM, etc.
2 comments

The Luddites also objected to new technology for their reasons. They weren't reacting on religious grounds that it was inherently evil.
It depends on how wide you cast the net of "hacker."

I think people who take things apart for fun and mash them together in new, unplanned ways can tend to build up a healthy respect for unexpected consequences. That can translate into an extremely reasonable tendency to shoulder the role of doom-sayer for any large system that could have huge societal impact. That's the thing about the Luddites... They were, perhaps, short-sighted, but they weren't exactly wrong. The Industrial Revolution was absolutely disastrous for entire ways of life and paved over tens of thousands of people on the path of progress. I personally see their failing not in their desired goals but in their methods.

... but on the other hand, hackers are also the ones building cloud services, user tracking systems, and DRM protocols. Again, depending on how wide you cast the net.