I admire your attempt to dig into the preconditions for the radicals' success.
If you've ever caught Part I of the documentary The Century of the Self, it recounts how the first PR man linked sexual and political liberation with consumption (of cigarettes, even!). It's possible that one of the "burning fires" was the idea that self-restraint is oppressive, an idea promoted by consumerism throughout the 20th century.
But what if the prime factor was not lust or MSM maliciousness, but rather pride or magnanimity? Adherents of established mores were so self-confident that they thought a few loons couldn't do harm to their society. They presumed that their own children would see through the looniness, not recognizing their duty to form them well.
I mean, how many conservative parents have taken the time to explain to their kids why gay "marriage" is wrong and crazy? Ten years ago, you couldn't have predicted it would be such a major issue. Perhaps the triumph of radicalism feeds off of a typical vice of the conservative temperament: assuming that future generations would be like previous generations without the effort of explicit teaching.
You make a very good point here. I remember back in the 70's when the "gay community" started advocating for just being left alone, and specifically declared that they would never ever ask for gay marriage.
The first response of conservatives ... and the typical person ... was to say nothing. For decades no one even mentioned gays. It would have been like shouting profanities during dinner. Nice people just didn't discuss those things. And as a strategy in the short run it seemed to be rather effective. If something was so evil and repugnant that grown-ups refused to even discuss it, then kids quickly got the message that that was something that they wanted no part of.
When the "silent treatment" strategy failed, we switched over to the "gory details" strategy. In this case if the topic of gays was brought up, we also brought up all of the diseases and problems associated with that "lifestyle choice." This strategy worked for some kids, but like all of the "reefer madness" type messages in the past it failed ... and was even laughed at ... by many more.
The problem seems to be that at the moment one is engaged in some bad behavior there appears to be little or no damage done. It is only over time that one realizes that error of ones ways. So we can bring up the horrors of smoking, drugs, or deviant sex, but the urges at that moment will often overcome years of proper training and instruction.
It would be nice if the MSM would be honest and report all of the problems associated with the gay death-style. But even if they did, I wonder how successful it would be in helping to curtail that behavior. We have been told for years of the hazards of divorce, adultery, etc. And yet people still let their marriages lapse into failure. The MSM sends out a mixed message that basically says its bad, but everyone is doing it. It's almost as if skiing necessarily involved breaking ones legs, but since everyone continued to ski it was just something we all have to live with.
You're right in that there is a lot of pride going around. And it could be that at the moment when someone does something wrong, even knowing all of the potential pitfalls, they believe that they will someone escape injury: no unwanted pregnancies, no diseases, no addictions, etc.
If this is the milieu in which we live, then this needs to be considered in how the message is spread. Before people felt more like a part of a greater whole. If the greater whole said "X was bad" then people might not do X, even if they wanted to, just so that they could consider themselves part of the whole.
Now the message needs to be more personalized: you need to stop doing X, because doing X is stupid or will cost you money or will make you sick or will lead to a life of unhappiness.
Every individual capable of independent thought is ultimately responsible for doing the right thing. I believe this is one of the core beliefs that all conservatives can agree with. It is true whether we are talking about wise investing, proper career choices, good health decisions, or moral choices.