If the tide turns and there are lots of scandals, celebrities and politicians will reverse ferret because public opinion will force them to. The public won't vote for people still insisting that men exploiting the loopholes for safeguarding reasons and the denying homophobic trojan horse publically. Its more likely that politicians will slowly just go silent on the subject or change the subject where possible. Of course if you've firmly hitched your eagon thats more difficult in which case a good old fashioned reverse ferret and public support for another worthy cause is a good plan. Celebrities who called for cancel culture could find themselves cancelled for backing the wrong horse and becoming irrelevant unless they too find another moral issue to self publicise with.
Business who are cashing in on the morality cash cow will ditch Stonewall and have green branding and certification to demonstrate how wonderful they are instead. They won't stay tied to a ship thats sinking.
Green issues - it will 100% be green issues with those promoting it appear daily in a new fashion out fit and claiming its part of their job to sell fashion and flying around the world for their essential job whilst telling everyone else that holidays abroad are dreadful affairs.
People like these just on a bandwagon and just wait for the next one to come along. They just can't help themselves.
There will be a section of the public who are also just a fickle and will follow the herd who are tuning in to the latest influencer.
Meanwhile you will have the die hards who wont go away. Particularly those who have signed up personally because they can't admit they have deeper issues which haven't been dealt with. The high levels of comorbidity with mental health issues and autism are going to rear their ugly head. I don't think a golden bridge will make any difference to this group.
And then there's those who come to the dawning revelation about how they have been conned. Some will quietly implode but others will go after the public cheerleaders as the scandals gather pace. Especially if there is compo on the table and its needed. (You ain't getting mental health support on the NHS easily for a good while - if you need it and want to go private...)
It will blow and blow for years. But young people will get older and women will have kids. Young people will just have life experience and realise that not all people are nice to you even if you are kind to them. Cos life is harsh.
We know that many people who were activists as students turn into accountants and over promoted middle management and move to suburbs to become gray and dull like their parents. Cos responsibility. And career prospects.
And what will the next generation have to rebel with / want to define themselves as? They won't want to be the same as this generation coming through. I think other political issues will raise to the surface as social issues bubble over - which will be much more practical rather than ideological. Many of these are well in progress. Housing issues being another particularly significant one.
This will happen in the UK before America because our culture war issues are different to the states. It wouldnt surprise me if it doesn't drive the Democrats out of the Whitehouse though. Biden isn't all that Democrats hoped for and continuing with this will not attract the moderates they need to keep out the Republicans. (Provide Trump doesn't stand as an independent). That huge sigh of relief, i fear may be more short lived than it should be. Traditionally the uk tends to lead cultural movements in a slightly different way to the us - music and fashion have tended to follow the pattern of being here today, gone tomorrow in a much more pronounced way than the US where it takes longer to build up and gain popularity and then longer to fade. Its why American artists come to London to get a break and be the next thing. We are more open to change. We are a more conservative (small c) country than we like to make out but we arent as tied to it as many Americans either. The nature of being an island.
I think you are more likely to end up with the forgotten and dumped. Like survivors of all sorts of other scandals. Sold down river and demonised when they are victims. They were over promised something that they could never have. (Noting the fears of many LGB individuals that they will be sucked into a backlash by association)
And extremists are often just people who would just be extreme about something else. The parallels between the more extreme trans activists and incels are interesting to watch. Social grievance isnt going to go away. Certainly not in countries with high levels of inequality.
I think once things are in law it becomes more difficult to reverse in the UK. England haven't completely crossed that. Scotland have. But then we also know theres a good political shit storm growing on that divide too. The US is slightly different because the Democrats slash lots of Republican doings and the Republicans slash lots of Democrat doings as a general rule. You have to keep an eye on dying Supreme Court Judges though. Places that concern me more are Canada, NZ and Ireland on that score. We shall have to see how it pans out...
Scandals can become all consuming and cross international barrier though. They can take 30 or 40 years to come through to that extent. The positive i take from the UK is whilst things are slow, scandals seem to be bubbling through at a faster rate than that....
So I'm not convinced we do need a golden bridge everywhere. That doesn't reflect underlying social trends and how society can be rather more fickle than that. The swinging 60s didn't last. The glam, unisex 70s didn't last. The yuppy culture of the 80s didn't last. The cool britannia of the 90s didn't last. Nor do any seem really appealing to the present moment because we are aware of their more dark sides. We know this is a cultural movement. It will have a legacy but it still remains a cultural moment only possible because various other issues in politics have aligned in a particular way. It arose at a certain time for a reason. And as politics change - due to events and social crisis - a new cultural movement will become more prominent because the political stars align.
The trick as a politician and celebrity is to see the next one incoming and ride that wave skillfully... Cos thats how western culture has worked for centuries. Its the thing that defines it. You can see the trend all through the Victorian era and into the 20th Century and beyond.
Make of that what you will.