The thing with enlightenment level ideas isn't that they aren't enlightening but that they attract hype. Individuals pretending to be enlightened if you will.

A scientific mindset as well as liberalism are also ideas where new proponents often want to draw a line in the sand to stratify people into superior and inferior. The original proponents were chasing a higher level of quality for all, but the need for social stratification weaponizes and gates ideas.