Joseph: Really? What was different about Jewish and non-Jewish dress in America 75 years ago? Please, tell me.
And you have to realize what things are like in E”Y. There are many, many places where someone walking into a Chareidi Shul without a hat will not be counted for a Minyan or will be forced to Daven in the women’s section. The hat and jacket define everything. It’s not an inferiority complex about one’s Judaism to resent those who wear hats and jackets when the hat and jacket are exactly what people use to determine your level of being Jewish. It’s not fun, it’s not happy, and it’s awful on both sides. I wish it would stop. But it doesn’t. So acknowledging that reality, I realize that it is disgustingly Chutzpah-dik to wear a hat into some DL shuls. They don’t feel he’s better than them. They feel that he holds himself as better than them because he wears a hat.