The battle over authenticity — and coolness — following The Great Unverification
Dr Seuss, when he wrote the 1961 children’s story The Sneetches.
In it, creatures with no stars on their bellies feel left out and ostracised by those who do have stars, until a crafty entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean offers to apply stars to anyone for just three dollars. Of course after that stars are no longer cool, and the star-havers remove theirs, leaving the original bare-bellies grumpy still, until both groups realise they’ve been manipulated.