I think what might be causing this is most likely porn addiction. From my own personal experience, it started off with just normal porn. I was maybe 9 years old. First it was vanilla for a couple of years, lesbians, harem kind of stuff and then I started watching incest porn. Incest was the big go to until I met my first girlfriend. I was 17 and sex was great, but I still craved porn, so when i was alone I'd find myself still watching incest and enjoying that. A year into our relationship it went from incest to threesomes where I'd be more turned on by mfm porn than incest. And while watching that and I stumbled upon cuckold porn. Eventually we broke up because I had to move to a different state and there was no cheating involved, it was mutual. But after that I was just hooked on cuckold porn because i was desensitized to other forms of porn. My second girlfriend I confessed this and we even went as far as her sharing pics with a guy online and it was incredibly hot for both of us, but nothing came of it cos it still was just fantasy and we didn't feel ready to cross that line.
But what I'm trying to say is the trend you are seeing could be due to porn addiction and people getting desensitized by what they watch so they keep switching genres in time. I'm glad it went this way instead of going a different direction cos I could have been into BDSM, rape or whatever shit that would have wired my brain to do harm towards others. I'm not hurting anyone, I take care of my family, I do good to others and I am in no way submissive outside the bedroom. No one in my family or my friends could guess I am a cuckold because you can'd tell me apart from any other man you cosider as "normal" or "manly".
Porn probably wired my brain to this and is doing the very same to a lot of men around the world so I don't think it's social engineering, its just our brain wanting more extremes because we eventually get tired of watching the same type of thing.
If there is a genre you like today, it could change in the future, it could.
I can't answer about political stuff like why drags should be in schools teaching kids about anything, I'm against it and that's all I can say. US is kinda fucked because both parties are corrupt and are just using people as tools to push their agenda and make the rich richer.
As to harems, I'd say its mostly practiced in middle eastern countries and women their are conditioned to belive it's normal. And that you can say is a form of social engineering. If you're from there you're more likely to agree and normalise that so there's no point discussing that issue. But no woman raised in the right environemnt would choose to share a man with other woman and that goes for the other way too, hence why cuckolding is a fetish and not the normal like you said. And I don't fall under the normal and I believe most who enjoy this specific fetish is okay with that.
Hmmm....Likely you are right that could be the main reason for many. And thank you for sharing this story.
I on the other hand went more in S/M stuff. Don't practise it much outside of porn media world. As long as you control it you don't actually hurt anyone and consent is a major thing there, same as cuckolding(swinging and open relationship). And i would not ever try it on a person who isn't into it. There are some who only do mental S/M while others do both physical and mental. With both you have to control the degree and take baby steps.
Though the stuff i watch(ed) on the internet didn't truly transition into my intimate life. I've tried but early on understood that porn =/= intimacy.
So for example incest.(didn't try that one but even having thoughts about it doesn't make me horny one bit)
Mighty damn fine on screen, but i cringe on the thought about doing it IRL. Though i do not judge anyone who can take pleasure in that AS LONG as age is appropriate and there is no power dynamic imbalance.
So yeah likely porn might be the biggest wave that brought a lot of fetishes but my stated stuff is just those additives which increases specific type of fetish. Internet is the magnum opus for every kink. And in many cases what you watch doesn't correlate with what you could do in your intimate life.
As for acting normal/manly outside of the intimate part. As i stated to another person that's the norm. Intimate behaviour might be very different from your usual modus operandi. (For example in S/M I'm trying to be extra sweet to the M outside of intimate part. This builds trust and feeling of safety that the person outside of kink zone won't be degraded and they are still well respected.) But for me even FFM isn't fun, only 2 people without any additions.
The harem thing...Yes i believe women in muslim countries would be less opposed but i noticed that even in "western" countries women are starting to become more agreeable towards this. And it was somewhat always on the fringes in christian countries i.e. mafia had
Goomah, nobility had concubines. Even today there are neo-harems where in different cities some guys have different families and their partners know about this.
Thank you for clarification and information. It has been a delight to read your input.