On broken symmetries and classical systems

•I argue that Baker's puzzles of symmetry breaking are not puzzles at all.•Unitarily inequivalent representations arise trivially in two classical examples.•Classical systems have the same mathematical features Baker uses without puzzles.

Baker (2011) argues that broken symmetries pose a number of puzzles for the interpretation of quantum theories—puzzles which he claims do not arise in classical theories. I provide examples of classical cases of symmetry breaking and show that they have precisely the same features that Baker finds puzzling in quantum theories. To the extent that Baker is correct that the classical cases pose no puzzles, the features of the quantum case that Baker highlights should not be puzzling either.