Millennial Snot and the Pop Cult: Worship in a Soulless Age

A lengthy post on X by Dudley Newright has brought an ancient truth about human nature back into the spotlight: Everyone worships something.Newright points out that today, this primal need doesn’t always lead us to a higher purpose. Instead, a growing segment of Western society has diverted its energies into a strange secular devotion. Revolving around worshiping youth, this synthetic religion speaks to the same deep-seated need but fails to nourish the soul.This new fixation is a shared obsession with consumerist and ego-driven pursuits that offer no answers, only a surface-level semblance of identity and belonging.Regular readers will recognize this phenomenon as the faith substitute I call the Pop Cult. And it’s a close cousin to a broader malaise encapsulated by what Dudley Newright terms Millennial Snot.Related: A Tale of Two CultsTogether, these ideas describe overlapping aspects of the same cultural impulse, but with different emphases. While the Pop Cult highlights the act of worship directed at consumerism, Millennial Snot examines the social dynamics that enable this worship, focusing on how irony, affectation, and contrarianism create the scaffolding for the Pop Cult’s consumerist edifice.Newright’s term "Millennial Snot" captures a social posture that’s as ubiquitous as it is destructive. Millennial Snot is an ethos of disdain, an ironic distance from everything sincere and substantive. This sneering posture is inherently protective, insulating people from genuine critique by inoculating them against attachment.LeenEvery bit of media consumed is safe from close scrutiny because it’s enjoyed “ironically.” It’s fandom as an accessory to identity, and it speaks to an attitude of selective seriousness: Everything is worth a laugh, and almost nothing deserves a deep dive. This pose jibes with what author J.D. Cowan has called "irony poisoning." Instead of a playful gesture; it's a lifestyle choice affected to mask an aching void where meaning used to be.But Millennial Snot isn’t limited to individuals. Its social currency is the basis for an entire collective consciousness that binds people into groups in a way that feels comfortable yet undemanding. The result is a spiritual posture that emphasizes shallow knowledge, disposable consumption, and ritualized disdain for anything or anyone with a shred of seriousness.Favreau KimmelWhereas Millennial Snot provides spiritually impoverished Millennials and Gen Ys with emotional and social structure, the Pop Cult offers content to worship. We see this effect in superfans who flock to theaters to see franchise films they already expect to dislike, or in those who spend thousands on limited-edition product just to leave it unopened on a shelf. Pop Cultists have cultic familiarity with their endless canon of Marvel movies, multi-decade comic book arcs, and sprawling TV series. But the question remains: What is this religious product consumption ultimately for?In the Pop Cult, participation is as much about passive conformity as it is about enthusiastic consumption. Because fans’ interests tend to dictate their relationships. And it's not unknown for cultists to discuss the events of fictional characters' lives more than their own. The reason is that the Pop Cult doesn’t demand introspection or self-mastery; it only asks that adherents continue to engage and consume. Millennial Snot justifies and protects this behavior, ensuring that fans don’t get too attached to anything except the experience of consooming.But while Pop Cult behavior outwardly resembles religious ritual, it critically lacks faith and fulfillment. Adherents participate in grand spectacles at conventions, dress in the ceremonial garb of cosplay, and defend or denounce plot twists with a zeal once reserved for theological debates. But unlike traditional religions, which offer explanations, the Pop Cult is pure escapism. There's no genuine eschatology; no sacred narrative with lessons to be learned. Its canon is designed not for depth but for perpetual novelty, driving fans back for more because contentment is perpetually just out of reach.Millennial Snot and the Pop Cult combine into a hollow form of worship as a protective mechanism against commitment and integrity. When viewed through a lens of irony, the Pop Cult's worship isn’t worship at all—it’s merely a recurring pastime, a coping mechanism repackaged as culture. Millennial Snot provides the social and psychological barrier that keeps Pop Cult adherents from asking why they’re worshiping. Instead of elevating their tastes and striving for excellence, the snotty attitude allows them to settle for, and even take pride in, consuming whatever the market churns out.Both concepts highlight an ongoing trend of substituting deep meaning with shallow alternatives. Millennial Snot and the Pop Cult together amount to a social phenomenon that ultimately conditions people to sneer at purpose and worship novelty, leaving them adrift. One discourages the search for genuine connection, while the other packages escape as a ritual.The answer to this cultural malaise may lie in questioning the value of this kind of pseudo-worship. Authentic faith is a way of knowing Truth. When worship is directed solely at empty pleasures, it leads not to wisdom but perpetual dissatisfaction.


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