This is not a popular opinion, but I have come to believe that social movements do not ultimately bring systematic change. Not be a contrarian, but I think it takes the right individual that sparks the final measure that brings about real, fundamental change. Let me give some examples.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I know he didn’t do it on his own, but he was a singular force, and that is authentic.
From fiction:
Gabriel Bell from the famous Star Trek: DS9 two-parter, “Past Tense” and the Bell Riots. Yes, he also very much did not do it on his own, but he was a force to be reckoned with.
John Sheridan from Babylon 5. He also did not do it on his own, he had both an immediate crew and an extended crew, but he was hands on and even died only to come back and finish the job. He ultimately made the decisions that changed history.
I know how generic I sound. I know I seem like I lack faith in the collective. I do lack faith in people at large. I know what you are willing to do to me when no one else is watching. I know it takes a single soul, the right person who possesses the qualities that the collective claims to be in favor of, but they are never actually capable of those moral values, not personally, they are not. It will take one leader to bring change. The group cannot do it.
Not all the time, but a lot of the time, if you start talking about something often enough other people will start talking about and next thing you know large masses of people are talking about it, but even then that doesn’t mean that fundamental change will occur. It takes more.