Scientific American bills itself as an outlet that “covers the most important and exciting research, ideas and knowledge in science, health, technology, the environment and society. It is committed to sharing trustworthy knowledge, enhancing our understanding of the world, and advancing social justice” that “reaches more than 10 million people around the world each month.” On Thursday, editor-in-chief Laura Helmuth resigned after calling Donald Trump voters “fucking fascists.”
Helmuth posted on her Bluesky, the Twitter-like social media platform for liberals who don’t want their echo chamber damaged, account after Trump’s victory, “I apologize to younger voters that my Gen X is so full of fucking fascists.”
Likewise, she posted “Solidtority to everyone whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results because fuck them to the moon and back.”
Finally, she added “Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect people who stayed and are trying to make it less racist and sexist. The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself.”
On November 7, Helmuth tried to apologize, “I made a series of offensive and inappropriate posts on my personal Bluesky account on election night, and I am sorry. I respect and value people across the political spectrum. These posts, which I have deleted, do not reflect my beliefs; they were a mistaken expression of shock and confusion about the election results. These posts of course do not reflect the position of Scientific American or my colleagues. I am committed to civil communication and editorial objectivity.”
The part about “editorial objectivity” is impossible to take seriously. Under Helmuth’s tenure, Scientific American broke its own 175-year precedent and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. That endorsement focused heavily on COVID, but also praised Biden’s economic plans that had nothing to do with science. This election, Scientific American’s Harris endorsement was even more political. It trashed Trump’s first term judicial appointments, hyped abortion, gun control, and Harris’s Medicare and tax plans.
During Helmuth’s time at the helm, Scientific American has also gone full woke. It has declared everything from the NFL to efforts to combat obesity racist and compared efforts to protect the integrity of women’s sports to race-based segregation. It has also claimed the belief in a sexual binary serves “mainly to reinforce gender and racial divisions by tying social status to the body.”
Magazine president Kimberly Lau claimed Helmuth resigned on her own accord, but the truth is she should have been fired a long time ago. The Bluesky posts were a symptom of taking a respected outlet and turning into just another progressive echo chamber.
