To give credit where its due, I genuinely do think that the mass statistics bombardment was an effective strategy for 'recruitment' during the nascent stage of the nationalist revival period.
The only issue is that they reached a level of saturation where more information wouldn't be effective. the 13/50 meme has really seeped into mainstream culture, and anecdotally, i've seen it popping up in even the most benign posts on facebook and twitter.
 
As for people becoming more serious, I think that's painfully evident. Its no longer about the frog memes and 'owning libs', and I certainly see an air of desperation within nationalists, or even people who simply don't want to see their people and culture die out.
 
I've seen many people who have risked their livelihoods for the cause, and they keep going despite the harsh social repercussions for espousing nationalism. They realized that they only have two options- political participation to prevent the demographic collapse, and building isolated white communities to weather out the storm.
 
To put simply, nationalism is no longer about a hypothetical scenario, but a struggle for survival. We've sen the msm harp on about spikes in nationalism/racism/extremism, and as an observer, this is an unavoidable, biological tribal response.
 
As an observer with significant sympathy for the nationalists, this was the one path I hoped we could avoid. But as the differences in ideology grows, this rise in political extremism seems unlikely to reverse. I think the last true pressure valves left is for establishment neoliberal politicians to adopt a facade of nationalist populism like we see with Macron and Boris, or for the rise of left-wing, anti-proletariat populist movements.