These things go in cycles. A lot of people don't realize that Scopes actually lost the Scopes Monkey Trial, and that the tide didn't turn overwhelmingly to rationalism in public education until the 1958 National Defense Education Act (which was motivated by the idea that there was a risk of the nation falling behind scientifically). The tide will turn towards rationalism and rigor again, eventually.
Homer Hickman came to my mind reading your comment. His Sputnik moment catalyzing the journey from coal mining town to NASA is a metaphor for that ideal. However, I’d have a hard time imagining America in 2022 has anything in common with 1959’s West Virginia.
