thneeded or not thneeded?

on recognizing faux-loraxes

Doctor Seuss ruined everything.

He did it with The Lorax.

He filled every bad boundaried martyr with moxy when he wrote:

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees!

Sure.

I’m glad we’re speaking for the trees.

There’s one problem.

Now we have a world filled with faux-loraxes running around portending to speak for people who don’t want to be spoken for or don’t need to be spoken for or may just have to learn to speak for themselves.

When you speak, you speak for yourself

When you state that you speak on behalf of

What you’re actually saying is: My value isn’t enough here and I want to be heard so I’ll use all of these other people as an excuse to try to get my voice amplified.

Instead, have the guts to make it personal and speak for yourself.

Show the others what that looks like.

And if they feel inclined they may follow.

And if they don’t?

Congratulations Lorax, you’ve made a thneed.

What’s worse?

We didn’t thneed your help as much as you thnought.