Labubu, Kidults, & MMA

The Week in Review: September 15, 2025

AP

It’s no secret that millennials and zoomers (men, especially) seem to be stuck in a perpetual state of adolescence. This phenomenon is fueled by a variety of factors; in his 1979 book The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch attributed it to a combination of neoliberal economic policies, soft parenting, and the outsourcing of everyday responsibilities to distant bureaucratic entities (which I covered in my piece on the recent teacher shortage).

While most recognize that Peter-Pan Syndrome is not something to be proud of, Ryan Zickgraf wrote in our pages this week about the “kidults” who unironically wear their immaturity as a badge of honor. He cites the twenty- and thirty-somethings buying into the Labubu craze, who post “unboxing videos on TikTok with the reverence of a gender reveal party…This collective mania,” he continues, “is symptomatic of a broader crisis: The collapse of adulthood and the rise of self-infantilized, perpetual children as a nation unto themselves.”

Though I have no interest in purchasing a Labubu (and find them to be rather creepy), I am in no position to play holier-than-thou. Earlier this week, I confessed to having some of my own strangely narcissistic quirks. (To my credit, I’ve gone out of my way to work through—rather than to shamelessly parade—said immaturities.)

Yet there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. University of Kansas grad student Stuart Doyle covered the growing interest young men have taken in mixed martial arts (MMA), citing how it helps those who practice it (as well as other combat sports) foster the virtues of discipline, restraint, and courage. He posits that the upcoming MMA match taking place on the White House lawn on the nation’s 250th birthday will remind us that “physical and moral courage is essential to self-rule.” Doyle goes on to assert that “it is hard to imagine a more fitting way to celebrate and reinvigorate American democracy.”

Also in Compact this week:

• Dan Hitchens on the nihilism of Andrew Roberts’s esteem for euthanasia

• In light of the killing of Charlie Kirk, Adam Rowe argues that uncivil discourse is an American tradition

• Juan David Rojas argues that Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva should free former president Jair Bolsonaro from prison

• Rakib Ehsan covers the uptick of migrants coming into the UK through the English Channel

• And be sure to check out this week’s podcast episode on Charlie Kirk’s death and euthanasia in the UK