It’s become a free for all. Culture is only powerful if it has the power to control. When radio, TV, and the early internet only offered limited channels for expression, whoever controlled those channels had the power to change minds through “culture”.
Now, everyone’s attention is so shattered and fragmented, no one can be controlled or influenced except for a limited time before the next distraction comes along.
Not only this, but there used to be a “mainstream” against which it was cool to rebel. Now, people are mixing and matching “normal” and “alt”, effectively no longer hiding their shameless grab at as much social power as they can take for themselves. I’m seeing hippies in sportswear and model-types wearing cheap baggy t-shirts. People are no longer looking for a culture to belong to and instead are trying to outcompete every other person on earth. That’s the culture now.
We all should just tattoos on our foreheads that say, “I’m better than you in every fucking way shape and form motherfucker.” That’s essentially what the world has become. (It’s always been like this, but today no one’s ashamed of showing it.)