A handful of people have had an argument in a single thread. That's hardly 'caving culture'. Maybe most people reading are not posting because they don't want to be involved in an endless argument that won't ever get satisfactorily resolved on here. Suggesting that young people's primary reason for not joining a caving club is because they judge that older members might be racist, transphobic and right-wing is one hell of a tautology. I'm none of those things, disagree with some of the points made by THT (especially 'shut down') and also have many younger friends in my caving club, which is thriving, and I'm very happy about that as they're good people. Our membership has a huge age-range, and its ability to manage that comfortably is one of its best features, I would say.
I'm not sure if I count as young, but I avoided joining a diving club in east Manchester primarily because it had a macho and racist sub-group of members whom I was fortunate enough to be introduced to on my first pub social. I never went again. On reflection, I should have told them why. I can't have been the only one who found it unacceptable.
We have the odd dinosaur in our mountaineering club. Fortunately, we seem to have a majority of folks with the backbone to call them out and challenge their opinions. We have updated our club rules to include guidance provided by the BMC in 2019 (see below). Not sure if this kind of thing exists in the world of caving admin, but it's hard to argue with any of it.
"
3.6 The Club respects the rights, dignity and worth of every person and will treat all Members equally within the context of Club activities and mountaineering activities, regardless of age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, sexuality or social/economic status.
3.7 The Club is committed to all Members having the right to enjoy mountaineering in an environment free from threat of intimidation, harassment and abuse.
3.8 All Members have a responsibility to oppose discriminatory behaviour and promote equality of opportunity.
3.9 The Club will deal with any incidence of discriminatory behaviour seriously, according to club disciplinary procedures.
"
Without going into any details, we have already used these to resolve an issue when an older member's behaviour that was called out by a new member. It worked and they both remain active members.