Thomas Pynchon's essay does a good job, I think, of explaining what the Luddites really fought against, and he does not, as this article seems to suggest, say a Luddite is "someone who opposes technological progress".
> But it's important to remember that the target even of the original assault of 1779, like many machines of the Industrial Revolution, was not a new piece of technology. The stocking-frame had been around since 1589 .... Now, given that kind of time span, it's just not easy to think of Ned Lud as a technophobic crazy.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/r...
> But it's important to remember that the target even of the original assault of 1779, like many machines of the Industrial Revolution, was not a new piece of technology. The stocking-frame had been around since 1589 .... Now, given that kind of time span, it's just not easy to think of Ned Lud as a technophobic crazy.