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Sciborg_S_Patel
In my time, they used hedonism as a nice tool to promote the wonders of a morally relativistic -yet pointless- materialistic reality. Nowadays they have shifted to some angsty teenager "arguments", like the supposedly "metaphysical" fluff that is this film's premise. Usually such demagogue is cited as a last resort (see desperate politicians), so you may be right when you suggest that it is all coming down.
I think there are a couple vectors:
-Fragmentation of the "skeptic" movement. Members accused of rape, sexual harassment, one of them imprisoned for fraud. The elimination of the Million Dollar Challenge (which was arguably always a scam anyway).
-A greater awareness of materialism's flaws, with enough momentum that the topic has to be addressed and wagons circled. There's a reason we see so many "panpsychism is wrong" articles popping up - materialists know they are losing ground. Heck Chalmers is going to hold a conference on Idealism, which is sure to make more heads explode! :)
-Quantum biology and increased awareness about how fields - an amusing addition to physicalism - play a role in bioligical systems.
-A reduction in religious fundamentalism in the West, but also increasingly in South America and parts of Asia. (Possibly elsewhere, this is just my own communications/travels.)
-The younger generation's lack of interest in manifesting a unified front against religion. Part of this, I think, has to do with the previous bullet.
-Increased awareness that parapsychology as a discipline even exists. While I'm admittedly no fan of Eben Alexander being the face of the NDE awareness movement he did boost the signal, so to speak.
-Increased awareness into problems with how science is practiced, along with distrust of top-down authority in general.
-Religion growing, not shrinking, in the world. Combine this with the above, and the increased communication across the world. Even the Western World supposedly being less religious is questionable - religious people have more children, after all. A person might abandon a literalist belief, or even become an atheist, while still being open to ideas like Psi and/or the afterlife.
Of course events could conspire to revive the skeptic movement, though I think the ground has shifted so much in terms of what people are concerned about I don't think the post-9/11 rise of New Atheism would be recreated.