Are we talking about the same country? Supporting a specific party is "life-destroying"? Tell me, is it the one in control of the House or the one in control of the Senate?
"But most people in field X believe that Y is crazy talk, and there's literature going back 127 years explaining why they have come to that conclusion"
"Sure, but they won't be nice to me if I try to work in field X"
"Right, but that's because they believe, and can explain why, they think you're crazy"
You greatly exaggerated how rational leftists or religious people are. (DAE do "cancelling"?).
I've attended classes as a listener where the professor was lecturing about how attempts to go to space are just modern equivalents of racist White Colonialism. I don't think there's a limit to how stupid people in supposedly high positions in society can be.
It's not the contents of a belief that makes it ridiculous.
It's the behavior of the person espousing the belief.
I can imagine an entirely rational and quite deep argument regarding whether or not attempts to go to space are just modern equivalents of White Colonialism. And I might not agree with one or all sides of such an argument, but they are not prima facie ridiculous.
What makes them ridiculous is a failure to engage with counter-points, a failure to grapple with reasonably established facts that conflict with the stated position, and a failure to engage in falsification (i.e. "well, if X and Y, then clearly my position would be wrong").
Someone who can do those things on behalf of their stated position deserves respect, but someone who cannot deserves much less.
