[Analemma_]

When there's no social safety net and you live in a society which insists on "he who does not work, does not eat", anything which sidelines labor is not "perceived as" an existential threat, it is an existential threat. And recognizing it as such is not paranoia, but straightforward realism.

If you don't want the paranoia, then fix the system which causes people to (correctly) see automation as pure downside.