Mitchell and Webb: "Are we the baddies?"
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited constantly as a quip when a person or organization seems to be doing something morally dubious.
What it is
A Mitchell and Webb sketch in which two German soldiers realize their uniforms carry skulls and wonder whether they are the baddies. It is a short comedy bit about people failing to see themselves as the villains.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2014 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends kjellsbells · 2025-07 · on “Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)”
On the topic of evil, this sketch from Mitchell and Webb stayed with me for years. Are we the baddies? [this video] Every villain is the hero in their own story, after all.
Cites DanBC · 2014-11 · on “World War II Is Full of Plot Holes (2010)”
It would have been funner if it had been more truthy. What actually happened fits very well with that bit of fun narrative. Using a bunch of incorrect stuff detracts from the funness. my example: the storm troopers didn't wear black. The SS did. But they didn't just wear black, they had runic emblems and skulls and shit. This minor detail is important because remembering details about genocide is probably a good thing. See Mitchel and Web for a better example. [this video]
Cites zepto · 2018-09 · on “Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users”
By your reasoning it would be a fallacy to call any large project unethical. I think that is clearly a fallacy. Nobody is arguing that every individual within Facebook is an unethical person. The argument is that the overall project is unethical and the ethical people within it should take that possibility seriously. For more philosophical background on this idea: [this video]
Cites cf141q5325 · 2023-09 · on “ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awful It Is”
>I think we disagree on the totalitarian aspect of the echo chamber. That distinction you hope for does not exist. We arent talking about your frame of digital neighbors but an end to self hosting. How ever nice your story sounds isnt more important then its predictable consequences. Authoritarian means with righteous sounding justifications safeguarded by only good intentions and an assumption of competence arent safeguards against totalitarianism, its its description. You cant create an authoritarian entity where you just keep the mean people away from the wheel. Thats how almost all totalitarians describe their perspective, including when some of my older relatives can be believed my grea
Cites cf141q5325 · 2023-09 · on “Project Gutenberg has implemented one of the worst AI fears of striking actors”
Yes. Unfortunately none of this is easy. Even if you are sure you are not in a deteriorating cult (pleasant one or not) there is still a ton of blind spots not stemming from social environment but your ego for the lack of a better term. Cognitive biases are a real danger and both advertisement and cognitive warfare target those. This is very much an asymmetric struggle. While you might be a sensible person when you are paying attention to the right aspects, most of the time you arent. Or to quote the Provisional IRA of all people >Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. I dont see a way around regularly checking if you have gotten
Cites bjt · 2025-10 · on “Asked to do something illegal at work? Here's what these software engineers did”
> You might want to think about why Petersen wants you to think you’re the Nazi. What change is he trying to effect in our culture, and how does that belief support his desire? Rhetoric always aims to effect some change in the attitude of the listener, and never without some benefit of the speaker. What benefit do you think he's trying to get from it? I'm honestly trying to figure out the nefarious angle and coming up blank. It seems to me like a very similar sentiment to that great "are we the baddies?" sketch from Mitchell and Webb. [1] I see both as an exercise in moral humility. See the Milgram experiment, or the Asch experiment. Most people do cave to pressure from authorities and the g
Cites thih9 · 2026-04 · on “Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder If They're the Bad Guys”
The title is likely a reference to a sketch: [LINK] [this video] Although it could be unintentional - the phrase is mainstream now and not hard to produce independently either.
Cites ChrisMarshallNY · 2026-05 · on “Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale”
I guess it's a sign of the times. I was just reading the old speech by John Barlow, in another post[0]. Sort of dovetails with this. I spent the majority of my career at a camera manufacturer. I probably made half of what I could have made, anywhere else, and there were lots of issues, caused by bureaucratic overhead, heavy-handed QA, and cultural misunderstandings. But not once, during almost 27 years, did I wonder "Are we the baddies?"[1]. My first job was at a defense contractor, where we manufactured surveillance gear, and sold it to militaries and spy agencies around the world. One of the reasons that I left that job, was because we definitely were the baddies. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]