It's the influence of post-modern thought; the idea that rationality and the scientific method are fundamentally sculpted by a patriarchal and chauvinistic white male worldview or 'gaze'. From this, post-modernism asserts that no way of knowing can be any better than any other, and that oral tradition and mysticism are equally if not more valid.

I leave it to the readers of HN to judge the validity of this philosophical stance; but one thing that cannot be disputed is that this school of thought is increasingly influencing our culture and politics. It's this epistemological stance that underlaid the much derided NMAAHC poster that attributed 'Emphasis on the Scientific Method' to Whiteness [1]. Indeed if you read modern Critical Race Theory texts there is a great deal of emphasis on oral histories of oppressed peoples, and they are considered more accurate than 'scientific' data, for those data were surely collected by the oppressors. It's also part of the reason why paganism, witchcraft, and the occult are fashionable among many leftists today; they view these ideas as standing in opposition to enlightenment rationality, which they dislike for its perceived privileged underpinnings.

[1]https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651