Don't Be a Sucker

Why HN readers recommended it

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.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

US National Archives

Topic

propaganda and prejudice

Format

documentary

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

4

HN mentions in dataset

12

Recommendation years in dataset

2020–2026

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• I've recently stumbled on United States Department of War film from 1943 > We must guard everyone's liberty or we can lose our own. If we allow any minority to lose its freedom by persecution or by prejudice we are threatening our own freedom [VIDEO]

• 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]

• 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)