[erybodyknows]

Interesting point. I guess the question is: is power inherently related to culture? And if so, to what degree? If culture is the outline of the dominant group in a society, perhaps the counterculture are those who occupy and inhabit its shadow.

[noobermin]

So, I'm not sure this is obvious, but the current "progressive[0]" culture is pushed by the dominant group that does have power. By raw statistics, white men still wield most power in American society (and thus the world), and so the progressive culture that is dominant in media is the culture being written and put into vogue by people who are white men if you merely draw on the statistics. If you've ever observed twitter, a good chance is someone bleeting about "white people be like X" it is a white person doing it. A good meme on housing twitter is nimbys doing land acknowledgements while no Native Americans (or POC really) are actually present since they are economically excluded from said community.

The thing is the statistics still speak for themselves. Despite the media, the PR campaigns, for example, software development still skews largely male. The spoken culture extols DEI, but the actual reality is still what is it by statistics.

On some level, this might just be recuperation in action, but the point is that it still is ironically the culture of the majority. It isn't being "pushed" by the minority because the minority is by definition, the minority. It is being adopted (even recuperated) by the majority, often into a form that is acceptable for it. The difference is that the majority isn't really centering itself in that media. Except that on some level, if you listen to Slavoj Zizek, it actually is.

Anyway, whether media or external culture really makes a difference materially (like minority representation in workplaces of high paying careers matching that of the population) it at least clear at this point that it either would take a lot of time to take effect, or possibly (probably even likely at this point) it has no real effect on actual power relations in society.

[0] putting this in quotes because progressive encompasses more than what is accepted by the mainstream culture.

[yucky]

  > By raw statistics, white men still wield most power in American society (and thus the world), and so the progressive culture that is dominant in media is the culture being written and put into vogue by people who are white men if you merely draw on the statistics. 

Those would primarily be "progressive" white men though, which still gets to the in-group/out-group dynamic where they will more closely associate with a racial or sexual minority then they would to a conservative white male (a value match vs a skin color match). So the effect is the same, is it not?