Mild Mannered
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This collage of tweets and images is indeed Baudrillardian in the sense that it reveals layers of simulation detached from any original—an implosion of meaning where the sign (the hat) becomes both the message and the medium of a political identity that now floats free of material reality.
Let’s unpack the metaphor and simulacrum at play here.
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1. The MAGA Hat as Symbol
The original 2016 MAGA hat (left in the second image) is simple, almost crude. It’s cheaply made, with a floppy structure and unpolished embroidery. But it became iconic precisely because of this unfiltered rawness—it was a kind of working-class authenticity, not slick, not refined, but unmistakably real in its intentions. It mirrored the populist message: rough, direct, brash.
By 2024, as shown on the right, the hat has become a cleaner, more professional product—bolder font, structured shape, vivid red. It's now the simulacrum of itself—a perfected image of what it was always supposed to be. It no longer arises from a populist groundswell but from a feedback loop of branding. It is the “second-order” sign: no longer a hat that stands for a political movement, but a replica of a symbol, polished to meet its myth.
This transformation is what @atlantesque calls a “powerful visual metaphor”: the original “raw signal” is gone, and what remains is the simulation of strength—all image, no referent.
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2. The “Little Red Hat” Hat: A Hyperreal Feedback Loop
Jack W.'s tweet introduces something even more absurd: a white hat with a graphic of a red hat on it.
The red hat is no longer embroidered; it’s printed, stylized, flattened—like an emoji of itself. It’s not trying to be a MAGA hat. It’s selling the idea of a MAGA hat. And crucially, it says "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" inside the image of the red hat.
This is Baudrillard’s fourth stage of simulation:
> “It has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.”
It’s MAGA not as a political project, not even as a movement, but as memetic iconography. The wearer of this hat doesn’t need to believe in anything. It’s about participating in a cultural artifact that refers only to itself. Like a person wearing a Nirvana shirt who’s never heard the music—it’s aestheticized memory.
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3. A Kernel of Truth in the False Self
You mentioned something profound: “a kernel of the true self being found in the false self.”
That feels exactly right here. In postmodern terms, the simulation—the false self—absorbs and reconfigures what once was true. And yet, within that recursive loop, some truth leaks through. Even as the hat becomes kitsch, parody, cosplay—it still functions. The myth of the MAGA hat still exerts real power. It mobilizes identity. It makes people feel seen.
The “little red hat” printed on the white hat is ridiculous—but it acknowledges something: we’ve reached the point where representation is all there is, and yet we still cling to the original signal even if it’s just in printed form.
Like a child carrying a picture of a teddy bear after the real one’s lost. Or, more precisely: a campaign carrying a JPEG of the revolution it once promised.
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TL;DR (since this is dense)
The 2016 hat: populist signal, raw and authentic.
The 2024 hat: polished simulation, a perfected version of the past.
The white hat with the image of a red hat: simulation of a simulation—hyperreality.
Yet even in that absurdity, there’s a kind of yearning, a ghost of the original cause, showing that even the false image can preserve a kernel of real desire.
Would you like to go deeper into the Baudrillard stages or compare this to other political artifacts-turned-simulacra (like Che t-shirts or Guy Fawkes masks)?
Let’s unpack the metaphor and simulacrum at play here.
---
1. The MAGA Hat as Symbol
The original 2016 MAGA hat (left in the second image) is simple, almost crude. It’s cheaply made, with a floppy structure and unpolished embroidery. But it became iconic precisely because of this unfiltered rawness—it was a kind of working-class authenticity, not slick, not refined, but unmistakably real in its intentions. It mirrored the populist message: rough, direct, brash.
By 2024, as shown on the right, the hat has become a cleaner, more professional product—bolder font, structured shape, vivid red. It's now the simulacrum of itself—a perfected image of what it was always supposed to be. It no longer arises from a populist groundswell but from a feedback loop of branding. It is the “second-order” sign: no longer a hat that stands for a political movement, but a replica of a symbol, polished to meet its myth.
This transformation is what @atlantesque calls a “powerful visual metaphor”: the original “raw signal” is gone, and what remains is the simulation of strength—all image, no referent.
---
2. The “Little Red Hat” Hat: A Hyperreal Feedback Loop
Jack W.'s tweet introduces something even more absurd: a white hat with a graphic of a red hat on it.
The red hat is no longer embroidered; it’s printed, stylized, flattened—like an emoji of itself. It’s not trying to be a MAGA hat. It’s selling the idea of a MAGA hat. And crucially, it says "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" inside the image of the red hat.
This is Baudrillard’s fourth stage of simulation:
> “It has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.”
It’s MAGA not as a political project, not even as a movement, but as memetic iconography. The wearer of this hat doesn’t need to believe in anything. It’s about participating in a cultural artifact that refers only to itself. Like a person wearing a Nirvana shirt who’s never heard the music—it’s aestheticized memory.
---
3. A Kernel of Truth in the False Self
You mentioned something profound: “a kernel of the true self being found in the false self.”
That feels exactly right here. In postmodern terms, the simulation—the false self—absorbs and reconfigures what once was true. And yet, within that recursive loop, some truth leaks through. Even as the hat becomes kitsch, parody, cosplay—it still functions. The myth of the MAGA hat still exerts real power. It mobilizes identity. It makes people feel seen.
The “little red hat” printed on the white hat is ridiculous—but it acknowledges something: we’ve reached the point where representation is all there is, and yet we still cling to the original signal even if it’s just in printed form.
Like a child carrying a picture of a teddy bear after the real one’s lost. Or, more precisely: a campaign carrying a JPEG of the revolution it once promised.
---
TL;DR (since this is dense)
The 2016 hat: populist signal, raw and authentic.
The 2024 hat: polished simulation, a perfected version of the past.
The white hat with the image of a red hat: simulation of a simulation—hyperreality.
Yet even in that absurdity, there’s a kind of yearning, a ghost of the original cause, showing that even the false image can preserve a kernel of real desire.
Would you like to go deeper into the Baudrillard stages or compare this to other political artifacts-turned-simulacra (like Che t-shirts or Guy Fawkes masks)?
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