History Main / EvilLuddite

ScienceIsBad? NewTechnologyIsEvil? LuddWasRight? Well, probably not. But don't tell that to these guys. They're utterly convinced that technology is evil...and so is anyone who uses it. They burn down factories, engage in FantasticRacism against {{robot}}s, {{Cyborg}}s and [[{{Transhumanism}} posthumans]], [[BurnTheWitch call for the execution of]] people who have had life-saving surgery and lay siege to laboratories. If their motive or justification is religious, they will often overlap with TheFundamentalist. If their motive is environmentalism, then they're almost certainly part of an AnimalWrongsGroup. Sometimes [[StrawHypocrite they don't really believe in what they're preaching and just want all that shiny, shiny tech for themselves]].

* The main villain of ''SuburbanKnights'' - though his BackStory explains that he hates technology because he wound up ostracized after the king decided to favor his scientist friend instead of him, a wizard. He kills people for relying on cars full of gizmos, calling people on cell phones and watching TV. Still, [[spoiler:[[{{Hypocrite}} he has an iPhone, says it's not technology, and using it is not being a hypocrite]].]]

ScienceIsBad? NewTechnologyIsEvil? LuddWasRight? Well, probably not. But don't tell that to these guys. They're utterly convinced that technology is evil...and so is anyone who uses it. They burn down factories, engage in FantasticRacism against {{robot}}s, {{Cyborg}}s and [[{{Transhumanism}} posthumans]], [[BurnTheWitch call for the execution of]] people who have had life-saving surgery and lay siege to laboratories. If their motive or justification is religious, they will often overlap with TheFundamentalist. If their motive is environmentalism, then they're almost certainly part of an AnimalWrongsGroup. Sometimes [[StrawHypocrite they don't really believe in what they're preaching and just want all that shiny, shiny tech for themselves]].

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** Averted by the Ba'ku from ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'', who ''are'' portrayed as an idealistic agrarian society.

* ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' features a terrorist organisation who are opposed to cyborgs. While they aren't shown doing anything directly evil [[spoiler: they did kidnap the teenage daughter of a CEO because she had a new cyberbrain treatment done to her. When the heroes find her, she looks about 70 (despite having only been in their "care" for less than 2 decades), has a daughter nearly as old as the time she was kidnapped and looking at her memories [[DrivenToSuicide drove the last rescue team to suicide]].]]

* The rebel people from ''Film/{{Surrogates}}'' are portrayed as a bunch of redneck hicks.

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* The Restorian of ''{{Andromeda}}'' who seek to end slipstream travel.

* The Jovian Republic from ''EclipsePhase'' was founded by these. Granted they might have a point, as this is a setting ten years after the [[AfterTheEnd RobotApocalypse left Earth uninhabitable]]. At the same time, their higher-ups are not necessarily as opposed to tech as their party line suggests, it's just a way to keep all the shiny, shiny tech away from the unwashed masses.
** And even the Jovians consider neo-primitivists to be [[KnightTemplar a little too hardline]].

* The Retros from ''VideoGame/WingCommander Privateer'' are on the same level as the pirates and Kilrathi.

* ''VegaStrike'' has an {{expy}} of Retros from ''VideoGame/WingCommander'', "Interstellar Church of True Form's Return" (as in, "Luddite [[XMeetsY meets]] ManifestDestiny theology"), whom everybody else calls Luddites -- the nutty offshot of legitimate [[SpaceAmish Purists]] faction.
* The eponymous "Dark Project" in the first ''{{Thief}}'' game is the Trickster's plan to take humanity back to the Stone Age.

* Played straight with [[StrawCharacter perhaps insufficient motivation]] by the Abominators in AnneMcCaffrey's ''The Skies of Pern''.

* * In the second season episode of {{Sliders}}, "Gillian of the Spirits", the protagonists are stuck on a world where the detonation of the atomic bomb scared everyone away from new technology, which is stuck in the 1950s. There is no television, digital hand watches, etc. And the Bureau of Anti-Technology was founded to keep any new technology from being accessed and to arrest those who either make it or possess it. Things are made worse by the fact that the dimensional timer is broken, and there are only basic hardware tools to fix it.

* Played straight with [[StrawCharacter perhaps insufficient motivation]] by the Abominators in Anne McCaffrey's ''The Skies of Pern''.

ScienceIsBad? NewTechnologyIsEvil? LuddWasRight? Well, probably not. But don't tell that to these guys. They're utterly convinced that technology is evil...and so is anyone who uses it. They burn down factories, engage in FantasticRacism against {{robot}}s, {{Hollywood Cyborg}}s and [[{{Transhumanism}} posthumans]], [[BurnTheWitch call for the execution of]] people who have had life-saving surgery and lay siege to laboratories. If their motive or justification is religious, they will often overlap with TheFundamentalist. If their motive is environmentalism, then they're almost certainly part of an AnimalWrongsGroup. Sometimes [[StrawHypocrite they don't really believe in what they're preaching and just want all that shiny, shiny tech for themselves]].

* On ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the episode "Paradise" features SpaceAmish whose leader (and her son) both turn out to be this trope (having [[spoiler: marooned the rest on the planet by forcing them to forsake technology]]).
** Averted by the Ba'ku from ''StarTrekInsurrection'', who ''are'' portrayed as an idealistic agrarian society.
** ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had the RecycledInSpace hippies in "The Way to Eden."

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* Pol Pot.
* The Taliban.

* ''DeusExInvisibleWar'': The Templars [the Luddite faction] are the ones responsible for murdering ''Chicago''... with [[GreyGoo something hi-tech]]. Nobody else is even vaguely as terrorist, not even Apostle Corp.

* The antagonist of the film ''Chain Letter'' is a technology-hating cult who kill people by sending them chain letters and offing them if the letters are not sent forward.

ScienceIsBad? NewTechnologyIsEvil? LuddWasRight? Well, probably not. But don't tell that to these guys. They're utterly convinced that technology is evil...and so is anyone who uses it. They burn down factories, engage in FantasticRacism against [[OurRobotsAreNonStandard robots]], {{Hollywood Cyborg}}s and [[{{Transhumanism}} posthumans]], [[BurnTheWitch call for the execution of]] people who have had life-saving surgery and lay siege to laboratories. If their motive or justification is religious, they will often overlap with TheFundamentalist. If their motive is environmentalism, then they're almost certainly part of an AnimalWrongsGroup. Sometimes [[StrawHypocrite they don't really believe in what they're preaching and just want all that shiny, shiny tech for themselves]].

* On ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the episode "Paradise" features SpaceAmish whos leader (and her son) turns out to be this trope (having [[spoiler: marooned the rest on the planet by forcing them to forsake technology]]).

** ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had the RecycledInSpace hippies in "The Way to Eden".

** Ironically, their leader is an insane [[SapientShip warship]]