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Don't Be a Sucker

US National Archives · 2M views · 2017-08-22 · 22:49

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Overview

A 1945 US Army educational film that dramatizes how demagogues use prejudice and scapegoating to divide people. It opens with fake wrestling matches and crooked gambling games to show how con artists work, then applies the lesson to racial and religious bigotry.

On Hacker News

HN commenters bring it up in political threads as a classic warning about divisive agitators and fascism, and suggest it be remade for each generation.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2020–2026

Topics

Media, journalism & propagandaWorld historySocial issues & culture
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propaganda1945 filmdemagogueryscapegoatingcivil liberties

What people said

neilv · 2026-01 · Recommendation

Yes, IIUC, that was one of the things that mobilized a lot of IMHO positive education/propaganda. It may not have always been for the most noble of reasons (e.g., a very wealthy person not wanting to be disrupted), but the fascism-is-bad messages are still great messages. For example, "Don't Be a Sucker" (long, but worth a watch sometime for anyone who hasn't seen it): [VIDEO]

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Kim_Bruning · 2021-09 · Recommendation

I'm not sure people can't grasp it. But it certainly can't be taken for granted. Perhaps we need to continuously keep making versions of this? [VIDEO] ("Don't be a sucker" 1945)

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jenkinsj · 2020-08 · Recommendation

A classic. The part when the agitator-clown-carnival barker yells "Folks I'm just an average American but I'm an American American! {{insert-ad-libbed-racist-tirade}}". Good thing we defeated nonsense like this long ago. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by US National Archives, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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