but discarding tools that atrophy us rather than empower us.

In the book it discarded tools that empowered us and ending up atrophying humanity basically forever, and even when the atrophy supposedly ended for the price of unbelivable suffering, it was only vulgar numerical and territorial growth, not empowerment. And it STILL required usage of not only forbidden tech but also technomagic required to even have a primitivist interstellar civilization.

Butlerian jihad was deeply reactionary war and every leftist should fight against the bastards that set up the Great Convention system.