Maybe the form has changed. I definitely as a child saw guys arguing on the church steps on sunday about how Evolution was guaranteed 100% hogwash.. but it wasn't really "a thing" that distinguished "us" from "them" back then.
I've been thinking about this and I think if anything, things have just gotten a whole lot more polarized. Those people were just "the people next door" when I grew up, their fundementalism focussed more on matters of race than of human origins for the most part, but their kids were still in school with us.... with the seriously religious teachers giving us bible class every morning "school" wasn't something to fear. So their kids ended up hearing the science too.... When people heard them talk nonsense the "thing" wasn't to try and corner them with logic, it was more of a "leave em be" attitude.
I think this CHANGING has made things worse. If anything, the increasing secularity of education and people around them, and unstoppable progress of science has caused these same types to recoil from the public institutions and start to "home school" their children. I think they have been emboldened (as most are) by their perceived persecution.
They're always going to exist. Every village needs one... I wouldn't say the afrikaans community is especially bad, most notably compared to some other communities in SA... they're positively scientific.
"Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground, Silly monkeys, give them thumbs, they make a club and beat their brother down. How they survive, so misguided, is a mystery. Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here" - Tool