Sure - "The loud fanatics" who have no following certainly drop into irrelevance. I think if what you say were completely true we would not have had any movement forward on positions that were considered radical just 10 - 20 years ago - like same-sex marriage. It is only because certain people with large followings - Andrew Sullivan and others - began making a vocal argument for gay marriage, which wasn't even considered a mainstream position until very recently, that it is now the law of the land in so many states.
Radicals have to be able to articulate their position in a way that is compelling and reasonable to a significant number of people in order for there to be a shift. But I think political progress is largely explained by this phenomenon.
It very much was and is contrary to plenty of people's beliefs, it's just that the number of people who hold those beliefs has changed. For example in the very recent Alabama decision the people publicly opposing it explicitly say it's against their beliefs.
There's an enormous difference between having an opinion which is not aligned with mainstream and being a radical.
The radical usually wants the world to convert to his/hers own views, which is why they tend to get closed minded and hard to talk with as they get older.
"I'll say nothing against him. At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King."
I do not understand why this post is downvoted. That there is a very large difference between "an opinion which is not aligned with mainstream" and the type of fanatical opinion here called "radical"--this should not be a controversial opinion.
Some people label all undesired opinions "radical" but that is obviously not what this poster is talking about.
Radicals have to be able to articulate their position in a way that is compelling and reasonable to a significant number of people in order for there to be a shift. But I think political progress is largely explained by this phenomenon.