Very well said. I don't have any insider knowledge on the way "Science" happens, but I can say from personal experience that this is exactly how politics in the US seems to be trending. You're allowed a certain range of thought, and if you go outside that range, there's some level of social/communal ostracizing that happens. Dispiriting is a great description.

I feel like this leads to further separation of actual physical communities as well with subsequent separation of governance styles, further polarizing the country in a fly-wheel effect.