I've argued before on Hexbear that while culture is generally downstream of politics and current events, I believe it is dogmatic to ignore the possibility and potential for culture to flow back as well. That particular argument went very :wall-talk: so I'd rather not repeat it again except to mention that one particular cultural moment that caused a massed reactionary response that snowballed all the way into the 2016 elections (GamerGate) may have tipped the scales in getting enough apathetic and indifferent people involved and participating in the political process. Most of the ruling class and the political donor class were actually surprised (as was :trump-anguish: ) at the outcome of that election, and many "Her Turn" donors had to scramble to kiss the ring in a hurry afterward. I'm not saying :hillary-disgust: would have been that much better but I do give that as an example of culture splashing back into politics and causing a lasting change. After all, capital-G G*mer culture is still more reactionary and fascist-sympathetic now than it was before that incident.