Legal Insurrection readers may recall that shortly after President-Elect Donald Trump emerged as the winner on election night, Scientific American Editor-in-Chief Laura Helmuth lost all sense of professional decorum and scientific objectivity and had herself a spectacular social media meltdown.
In a social media rant, Helmuth raged against Trump supporters, some of whom are likely to be science-curious potential readers of her publication. As a reminder, here is what it looked like:
This is not a good look for someone supposed to have scientific objectivity or professional decorum. Many who read the screed called for her resignation.
Subsequently, Helmuth disavowed the remarks and locked her X.com account. But the damage was done, and now she has resigned.
Posting on Bluesky, an X rival, Helmuth said Thursday that she’s “decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief” without mentioning her previous comments.In a series of now-deleted posts on the same platform, she called Trump voters the “meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” group and “fascists” following the former president’s reelection last week. Her comments went viral on X and were criticized on the increasingly right-wing platform.Helmuth had apologized in a separate post, calling them “offensive and inappropriate” and that they don’t “reflect the position” of Scientific American.
This event is the latest episode in the magazine’s descent into woke madness. It included Scientific American endorsing Kamala Harris for president, marking only the second time for such an endorsement in its 179-year history.
Other low-lights from the magazine’s stack of articles:
Previously, Helmuth had been slammed for peddling gender pseudoscience on Twitter, which was brilliantly debunked by Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright. Wright reviewed the exchange once her resignation was announced.
The bosses at the publication seem undisturbed by this departure. In reporting this news, NPR digs at many of us who are delighted by this resignation.
In an emailed statement to NPR, Kimberly Lau, president of Scientific American, confirmed Helmuth’s resignation, stating, “Laura Helmuth has decided to move on from her position as editor in chief. We thank Laura for her four years leading Scientific American, during which time the magazine won major science communication awards and established a reimagined digital newsroom. We wish her well in the future.”Conservatives on X, the social media platform where Helmuth’s comments gained traction, celebrated her departure as the downfall of another “woke” crusader.
No, we are not celebrating her downfall. We are celebrating the opportunity for this once-respected science publication to reconfigure itself and begin refocusing on rigorous science.
You can’t be woke and be a serious scientist. Hopefully, the executives at Scientific American will now appoint someone who understands the value of hard data, solid reasoning, and honest debate and discussion over theories.
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