Merchant renders 19th-century events in contemporary activist language—calling owners “tech titans” and “the one percent,” likening Luddites to Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter—and concludes that “robots aren’t taking our jobs; our bosses are.” This anti-capitalist narrative and call for revived Luddite resistance form the foundational premise and emotional driver, not incidental background. The author’s explicit intent reinforces the score, with ongoing Substack work positioning the book as a direct call to resist Big Tech exploitation through the same lens of economic disruption and laissez-faire economics. These elements make the progressive framing central to the premise rather than peripheral, turning historical analysis into a vehicle for modern labor activism. The absence of identity-politics or DEI content keeps the focus strictly on economic critique, yet the deliberate analogies and activist language still embed ideological messaging throughout.