In Jean Baudrillard’s philosophy, a simulacrum (plural: simulacra) refers to a representation, image, or sign. It not only copies reality but eventually supplants or precedes it. This leads to a state of hyperreality. In this state, the distinction between the real and the simulated dissolves.

Baudrillard describes this as a progression through four orders. It begins with faithful reflections of reality.

Then it moves to distortions, and continues to masks for absent realities.

Finally, it becomes pure self-referential simulations that bear no relation to any original referent.

In hyperreality, “objective truth” gives way to these copies.

This shift creates a “death of the real” where simulations dominate perception and experience.

The concept of simulacrum, when applied to Iran, reveals the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian system. This system constructs hyperreal narratives particularly through propaganda, media control, and political discourse.

These narratives obscure actual events, sustain power, and manipulate both domestic and international perceptions.

This ties directly into themes of semantic terrorism.

This is how I’ve framed it. Language and images are weaponized to invert meanings. They erode shared reality.

Baudrillard’s ideas, famously used to critique the Gulf War as a “non-event” mediated into simulacra, extend to Iran’s internal “wars”

(e.g., against protesters) and foreign policy, where representations become more “real” than the events themselves.

As one analysis notes, in Iran’s hyperreality, politics is “no longer about truth; it is about the simulation of truth.”

Key Applications and Examples in Iran

Iranian propaganda often operates at the third and fourth orders of simulacra, masking absences (e.g., lack of genuine threats) or creating self-sustaining illusions detached from reality. This fosters epistemic confusion, where citizens and observers struggle to discern truth amid simulated spectacles.

1. Media Representations of Protests and Repression (Third-Order Simulacra) State media like IRIB broadcasts coerced confessions. They also edit footage of protests. These actions simulate “foreign conspiracies” or “terrorism.” This aims to mask the absence of such plots. In the 2025–2026 uprisings, blackouts create “silence vacuums.”
2. These vacuums are filled with hyperreal narratives. Protesters are reframed as “enemies.” Deaths are inverted as “defensive actions.” This is similar to Baudrillard’s Gulf War critique. Media imagery dwarfs actual events. This turns repression into a simulated “war.” This “war” did not take place in its claimed form. The result: a hyperreal “threat” justifies crackdowns, while real grievances (economic despair, executions) are erased.
3. Anti-Imperialist Discourse in Foreign Policy (Fourth-Order Simulacra)
4. The regime appropriates “anti-imperialist” or “progressive” rhetoric to defend internal colonialism and theocracy, creating pure simulacra where signs (e.g., “human rights”) refer only to regime self-interest, not reality. For instance, spokespeople label criticism as “Orientalist hegemony,” simulating a Global South revolutionary stance despite suppressing minorities (Kurds, Baluch).
5. This hyperreality exploits Western guilt and paralyzes solidarity. As Baudrillard might say, it’s a “war of metaphors.” Representations dominate, detached from factual oppression.
6. Cultural and Artistic Simulations (Broader Societal Hyperreality) In Iranian art, such as Azadeh Akhlaghi’s photographs, simulacra challenge state narratives. Sometimes they mirror these narratives. They reconstruct historical deaths by creating “copies without originals.” These are hyperreal recreations that question official histories. State-sponsored media (e.g., anti-Semitic shows like Zahra’s Blue Eyes) fabricates simulacra of enmity, simulating conflicts (e.g., with Israel) to unify domestically, in a self-referential loop far from real geopolitics.
7. Elections and Political Spectacles (Hyperreality in Governance) Iranian elections are often critiqued as simulacra of democracy. Candidates are pre-vetted. Turnout is manipulated, and outcomes are predetermined. This process masks the absence of real choice. Media simulates “participation,” creating a hyperreal “will of the people” that sustains theocracy while actual dissent is criminalized.

Implications for Iran

In this hyperreal Iran, simulacra enable control by inducing “information overload.” This causes epistemic paralysis. People live in mediated spectacles, doubting their experiences.

As Baudrillard feared, truth dies. In the age of hyperreality, politics is no longer about truth. It is about the simulation of truth.

This aligns with my analyses of semantic terrorism, where regime propaganda hollows out meaning to prevent resistance.

Countering it requires exposing these simulations, reclaiming grounded narratives through epistemic resistance (e.g., HRANA’s documentation).