The luddite-statist attacks on Amazon

I'll caveat this by stating up front that while I style myself a Luddite, I own and enjoy several tech devices, including a Kindle Fire. That being said, I do not see it as a replacement for real dead-tree books. My Kindle serves four purposes: web appliance, reader for public domain texts, reader for books that I'm not interested in keeping in perpetuity (text books), and reader for books that I have a print copy of as well.

The following article by Gen LaGreca attempts to ally modern luddites with statists, and has an introduction pitting the scribes of handwritten books against the Gutenberg Press. Here is an excerpt:

The luddite-statist attacks on Amazon: Two articles appearing on the front page of its business section on April 16, 2012 illustrate what happens when the Luddites, ie, those hostile to technological development, meet the statists, ie, those who look to achieve their ends through government ...See all stories on this topic »

There are a couple problems with this scenario: 1) the historical luddites fought against the textile owners and were ultimately decimated by the British government, 2) neo-"luddites" oppose tech that they either do not understand, fear, or reject. We must not confuse neo-luddites with the Amish, and with no disrespect intended, have eschewed modern society in general (there may be something to be said of that lifestyle, and they will probably be better prepared for TEOTWAWKI, or the zombie-pocalypse than the rest of us). The premise of the article is that the publishers are the luddites soliciting the services of the government to suppress their competition. This is not luddism, this is mercantile despotism and crony capitalism. There may be peripheral similarities, but it is the opinion of the writer that this is not luddism.

Now that I have made my feeble attempt to defend the institution of luddism, I'd like to share some clips as to why dead-tree books are superior to digital books:

Kindle commercial parody

Antiques Roadshow parody (anti-textbook cabal)

The Book vs. The Kindle, Round 1: The Buy Counter