The Unfortunate Return Of Puritards (And Why It Happened)
4/5/2026
If you were alive and old enough to notice the world around you in the 2000s and early 2010s, you might remember when "live and let live" was the popular moral compass. The idea was very simple: if someone is doing something and they're not really hurting anybody, just ignore them and leave them alone. In return, you'll also be allowed to just be yourself, and if someone gives you any shit for it, just ignore them and move on.
If you were alive during this time, you might have seriously thought that Christianity was on its way out, that we were right on the cusp of entering a new age where secularism reigned supreme... and then, something completely unexpected happened. Zoomers turned their backs on this world of "science" and "progress", and suddenly being a puritanical Christian became cool again. So what happened? What went wrong? Well strap yourselves in as I attempt to explain what I believe caused this shift.
The Fall Of The Puritards
Before we can discuss how the puritards made a comeback, we first have to understand how they fell out of favor in the first place. Something that seems to have been completely memoryholed is the fact that for most of modern American history, puritards fulfilled the same role that woketards fill today. They were the fun police who wanted to ban and censor everything that the rebellious counter-culture youth liked. The reason Millennials (and to a lesser extent Gen Xers) were edgy fedora tipping atheists in the 90s and 2000s is because they wanted to make their puritard parents clutch their pearls. The youth will always rebel against the current establishment because they want to explore what exists outside of the curriculum that was laid out for them. This is pretty basic stuff, but what I don't think a lot of people remember is that immediately after 9/11, puritards had almost done a coup d'état over mainstream American culture. When I say purtardism was BIG in the very early 2000s, I mean that it was so big, religious framing was literally used as justification for why we "HAD" to go to war with Iraq. All of that's just to say that the reason Millennials were so anti-religious was less to do with some philosophical breakthrough and more to do with just not wanting to feel controlled by authority figures.
Woketards Became The New Puritards
Now that we understand how puritardism fell out of fashion, I can explain how they made their grand return. I'm far from being the only one to point this out, but in the late 2010s, the exact same Millennials from the 2000s, the ones who celebrated being edgy, the ones who built bustling online communities with unregulated free speech, the ones who used slurs jokingly then made fun of you if you got offended, the ones who told you "don't like it? just turn the TV off" if you said South Park was too offensive, when those exact same Millennials entered positions of power and became the new establishment, they became woketards and pretty much replaced puritards as the fun police. The only difference between woketards and puritards is that instead of shoving puritanical values down everyone's throat, it was progressive left-wing politics. You were no longer scolded for posting a meme making fun of Jesus Christ, but you were scolded for calling someone a "faggot".
Since the youth is always going to rebel against the establishment, then logically if woke left-wing progressive politics becomes the establishment, the counter-culture will drift towards what they perceive to be the opposite of that, which in this case happens to be puritanical Christianity. So that's it then. End of story, right? Woketards went too far and the Zoomer counter-culture is rejecting them! Well... not quite. That is definitely a big part of the reason why purtardism is making a comeback, but it's not the full picture.
Being A Puritard In (Current Year) Is Easy
This right here is the hidden second biggest reason why so many Zoomers have become puritards. Being a puritard nowadays is insanely easy compared to the previous decades. Let me explain. Back in the 2000s, vices were everywhere and within hands reach. Western media was at its peak producing classic after classic. There's a good chance many of the shows and movies you watch, many of the songs you listen to, and many of the games you play, were all made before the mid-2010s, and that's because western pop culture has been on a complete slump ever since the mid-2010s. Now add on top of that a changing economy, making things like drugs, alcohol, casual nights out, going to the movies, going clubbing, going to concerts, going to the mall, throwing a house party, basically anything that teenagers and 20-somethings like, out of hands reach for most Zoomers, AND a toxic sociopolitical landscape which has atomized and made people distant from each other, and you have a recipe for growing up in one of the most sterile and boring decades in recent history.
Gen Z puritards think they've figured everything out by realizing that there exists a world outside of short term pleasure. They think they're smart for "resisting temptation", but here's the thing... It's VERY easy to "resist temptation" when there is basically no temptation to resist. It'd be like a crackhead feeling proud of overcoming his drug addiction by being placed in solitary confinement where there's no chance in hell they're ever getting near another rock of crack. I have no doubt in my mind that every single puritard Zoomer who says this secretly envies Millennials and wishes they could've experienced the youth they had.
It Didn't Have To Be This Way...
Let's not mince words here. I've been using the word "puritard" throughout this post because I completely reject this new strain of puritardism. Puritards to me are just another side of the coin to woketards. Unlike a lot of my Zoomer piers, I don't try to larp as Marcus Aurelius. I actually long for the days when Millennials weren't the fun police, the days when they still upheld their "live and let live" moral compass. To me, that short period between 2004 and 2014 when "live and let live" was the popular moral compass, that was the actual peak of western civilization.
It's kinda funny to think that had Millennials not pulled the ladder up behind them and started wagging their finger at Zoomers for doing the same shit they used to do, they may have avoided causing the next crusades. Cause as we all know, "based and trad" Zoomers are definitely self-improving 24/7 and are totally not just doomscrolling and watching Nick Fuentes clips all day. Just like how left-wing Millennials are definitely not just terminally online on Reddit and are totally capable of fighting in the upcoming Communist revolution.
What's the take away from all of this? What's the solution? Is there even a solution? A final solution, if you will? Idk. Just don't let the fun police control your life I guess. Be bold, be edgy, post that sexy succubus hentai pic, post that tweet making fun of fat black trannies, and tell the snowflakes, whether they be puritards with a Roman statue pfp, or woketards with pronouns on their bio, "fuck your feelings".