About

If My Hat Offends You, You're Not a Real Libertarian is a phrasal template based on a tweet by Libertarian presidential candidate Dan Behrman, who is known for wearing a yellow wellington top hat with a sticker that reads "taxation is theft" on the front. Online, people post photographs of people wearing different hats with the phrase as a caption.

Origin

On January 22nd, 2020, Dan Behrman tweeted,^[1] "If my hat offends you, you're not a real libertarian. No evidence suggests it is hurting the party, only that it is creating more libertarians. Instead, you self consciously fear judgement by others of your association to someone who refuses to live according to societal norms." The tweet recieved more than 300 likes and 55 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

Spread

Three days later, Twitter^[2] user @classiclib3ral tweeted a screenshot of the tweet and a photograph of Behrman wearing the hat and the caption, "Checking in on the discourse in the libertarian party primary. This is one of their frontrunners for the presidential election." The tweet received more than 11,000 likes and 1,200 retweets in less than three days (shown below, left).

That day, Twitter^[3] user @JustinWhang tweeted the caption with a photograph of a man wearing a small black hat. The tweet received more than 3,600 likes and 300 retweets in less than three days (shown below, center).

Over the next few days, people continued to share the post with photographs of people wearing different hats for humorous effect.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References