Don't Be a Sucker! is a short educational film produced by the U.S. War Department in 1943 and re-released in 1947. The film depicts the rise of Nazism in Germany and warns Americans against repeating the mistakes of intolerance made in Nazi Germany and avoid falling for fascism. It emphasizes that Americans will lose their country if they let themselves be turned into "suckers" by the forces of fanaticism and hatred. The film was made to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces by simply revealing the connection between prejudice and fascism.
This film is not propaganda. To the contrary, it teaches how to recognize and reject propaganda, as was used by the Nazis to promote to bigotry and intimidation. It shows how prejudice can be used to divide the population to gain power.
It is very relevant again in the era of Brexit, Farage, Theresa May, Trump ,Charlottesville, VA. et al. Something that needs to be reposted in these dangerous, broken, fractured times.
I am sharing after the weekend, when my stomach turned aftervarious groups of neo-Nazis including the National Socialist Movement and the Traditionalist Workers Party held an event called 'Unite the Right' in Charlottesville, VA. where they waved Confederate and Nazi flags, brandish weapons, scream “Jews are Satan’s children”
They used the same dog-whistle politics, citing “freedom of speech,” like Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists in the 1960s, and the National Front, the BNP, and Britain First and the English Defence League that have followed in their wake in Britain.
Due to the hard work of the combined opposition of local antifascists and the numerous groups who made the journey to the city, the rally was called off before any speeches were made. But throughout the day violent clashes continued to take place as antifascists defended the streets against people who were openly identifying themselves as national socialists and ethno-nationalists. Later in the day as the event appeared to be coming to a close, James Alex Field Jr, who was seen holding a shield with American Vanguard, drove a vehicle at speed into a group of antifascists, which included a contingent of Wobblies, Black Lives Matter, and Democratic Socialists of America. Though different sources are saying slightly different things, it appears that 19 people were badly injured and one woman who bravely came out ro demonstrate was killed, she was Heather Heyer, a local Charlottesville antifascist .Rest in Power
Now the racists/Nazis are currently getting all upset and whining about losing their jobs, .too bad, idiots. Their bosses and the companies they worked for also have the right to choose not to be associated with racists and Nazis just as the sane people of the world have the right to identify and ostracize them.
Frighteningly though there are white nationalist enablers actually in the White House. They demonize immigrants and Muslims. They boast about their close ties to the alt-right They refuse to condemn far-right violence and terror by name. And in one case, they’ve literally helped to establish a political party with European neo-Nazis.Their presence in the White House emboldens neo-Nazis and brings their ideology into the mainstream.
They are Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka. It's time for the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to show them the door.
The hatred unleashed by President Trump’s campaign is not new to this country or to the world. We’ve seen it before, and we know that it will not be vanquished just by firing these three men, or even by the eventual end of the Trump presidency.
But firing them will send an important message that the White House will not allow these dangerous ideologies to fester within the president's closest circle of advisers. It’s a first step , and one that General Kelly needs to take now.
As long as Bannon and co. are still in the administration, any White House condemnations of white supremacy will be ultimately ineffective and inadequate. Their proximity to the most powerful person in the world is shameful and dangerous.
We afford to sit by in silence while White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and the Trump administration terrorize communities of color, Muslims, immigrants, the LGBT community, Jewish people and people with disabilities.
We don't have a Muslim problem. We don't have a Jewish problem We have a Fascism problem. Stop calling it alt-right. Start shutting it down. We can't afford to be suckers any more.
Please share the word.
