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I don't think these ideas are as toxic to the current political climate as you think they are. We're probably just a few short years away from the current generation of right-wing populists integrating ideas like "children are useless eaters that are your property to command, make them give back from all that you gave to them" and "work safety and environmental regulations are an emasculating evil, real men want to breathe poison and take risks" right into the core of their platforms.
1. Looms were a serious physical workout, and could honestly be hard on one's body
2. The mechanical looms they operated were pre-electric, pre-industrial, but still incredibly complex and amazingly fast compared to previous iterations
3. The operators of looms, living in abject poverty, took these jobs so that they could eat and support their families, and incidentally became the top experts on weaving cloth during their lifetimes, which all basically collapsed when looms were automated and mechanized.
It would be very short-sighted to look only at the jobs lost by the few weavers, and not the wealth gained by everyone else.
All of it - the car, the iPhone, the healthcare, the indoor plumbing, the air conditioner, the closet full of clothes - is only possible because of automation.
Once upon a time, everyone was poor. Then, some countries industrialized and others didn't. The ones that didn't are still poor today.
Some countries like China have recently pulled themselves out of poverty through industrialization. Someday Africa will do the same.
If the loom smashers had their way, we'd still be dirt farmers living in abject poverty.