Yes I agree that conformist eras have existed before in American history. The 1950’s were another example of a conformist era that I think was bad.
Conformism of any kind is bad. There are those of us (such as myself) who are against the conformism of the 1950’s (which was also a type of puritan cancel culture) and the conformism of Victorian England (just throwing out an example) and what happened starting in 2019.
I distinctly remember in the early 2010’s that conformism had diminished. Maybe I felt that way because I was in college at the time but I remember there were a wide variety of options across the political spectrum being expressed and vigorous debates both in the media and around college campus. No talk of “deplatforming” back in the 2010-2015 era. The idea I remember was to invite people of different views and listen and debate them.
Tv shows and movies had many scenes that were “offensive” without the kinds of responses you see nowadays.
The “white conservative male” was not dominant in 2010-2015. Many voices existed.
I myself am not white. When I was in college over 10 years ago I never got the feeling white conservatives were dominant.
Around 2018-2019 the conformism began again. It was a different type of conformism than the 1950’s. A conformism in a different ideological direction. But it was still conformist.