Why Do Socialists and Populists Fear Technology?

Image: Reuters. Article by James Pethokoukis.

One thing democratic socialists and nationalist populists seem to have in common is a discomfort with technology.

Sure, folks in both camps may love tweeting on their iPhones and binging Netflix — and one day may be happy that a terrible illness is cured through genetic editing. But the economic process that helps generate all that good stuff is less appealing to them.

On the right, a Claremont Institute essay “For Real American Greatness, A Tech New Deal” latches onto just about every tech scare story out there to make its case for government intervention into the tech sector. As I recently blogged, the authors fear an approaching “new world” where “right-wing speech about race and gender is suppressed, Big Tech is an unproductive monopoly, robopocalypse means men are all caregivers or jobless, and AI-controlled humanity is fast-evolving into posthumanity.” […]

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