My conspiracy theory on this: part of me thinks its because if the corporate owners of America actually automate the boring jobs, then that means normal people would have time to finally relax and maybe realize how fucked up our country is, and also have the time to more effectively help worker movements.

But if you automate the fun and creative stuff like art, use AI tools to more or less break people… it’s easier to control a bunch of tired and sad people than it is to control people in a normal state.