Apparently, even the publishers of America’s most popular scientific publication are afraid of Donald Trump’s new regime. In a startling and heartbreaking move, Scientific American‘s editor-in-chief Laura Helmuth has resigned after online backlash for comments she made immediately following Trump’s election on November 5th.

Just as corporations were hesitant to criticize Trump during his campaign for fear of reprisal, many publications refused to print negative things about him. Long-standing endorsement traditions from celebrated American newspapers were written, then withheld.

It turns out, they were right to be scared.

Shortly after the election, Helmuth kicked off an announcement of her displeasure with the results in a series of Bluesky posts, now deleted, that began with the lamentation that “my Gen X is so full of f*cking fascists.”

The new social media site, which has exploded in popularity since Trump’s “First Buddy” Elon Musk was catapulted from Chief Annoying Officer at X to Chief Annoying Guy With Trump, has been a safe space for people to express their feelings without being overwhelmed by the frustrating algorithm of X. Since Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X, the site has largely become a forum for right-wingers and trolls.

The “fascists” comment was far from the end of it, and one such enterprising X troll found the posts on the new site, screenshotted them, and posted them to Musk’s sinkhole of disinformation back on X, where eventually Musk himself saw them. He became an extremely active user of his own site during the 2024 presidential campaign, endorsing Trump and spending a lot of money promoting tweets that promoted Trump.

Her comments only got more heated as she went along, and the screenshots that went viral on X included:

• “Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high school classmates are celebrating early results because f*ck them to the moon and back.”
• “Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect the 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.”
• “Any advice for what workplaces can do to help people who are devastated by the election?” (this is still posted)

On X, it showed up like this:

Does the editor in chief of Scientific American seem like someone who is entirely dedicated to uncompromising scientific integrity?

Or does she seem like a political activist who has taken over a scientific institution? pic.twitter.com/mOOzE7SVbq

— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) November 12, 2024

When Musk saw that post, a scant 4 minutes after it was posted, he responded by quote-tweeting it with the caption “The latter.” His post drew thousands of likes and comments, mostly from users who worked in the word “woke” into their remarks.

The latter https://t.co/nXvdFV1Dwn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2024

Unfortunately, it all culminated in Helmuth’s resignation. Although we’re only finding out now about the shake-up at the magazine, her departure happened more than a week ago. On leaving, she wrote:

“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.”

But this is the problem. Without intending offense to Ms. Helmuth, science does not require editorial objectivity, and what’s more, she was objectively correct about everything she said. We have seen essentially the fall of American media who have “sanewashed” and normalized Trump and his antics through an attempt to seem even-handed.

In my estimation, the duty of either a scientist or a reporter is simple. If two people disagree about whether or not it’s raining outside, it is not science or journalism’s job to declare that “there’s partisan bickering over possible precipitation” so they don’t step on the toes of the guy who’s wrong.

It’s our job to stick our head out the window, and if we get wet, report accordingly. That goes doubly for making a public note of fascist behavior, which is far more dangerous than a little rain.

The magazine is the oldest continuously-published magazine in the country and is far and away the leading voice for scientific innovation and advancement. Luminaries like Albert Einstein and (ironically) Nikola Tesla have been published in its pages.

Tesla once invented a source of wireless energy that was self-sufficient more than 120 years ago. But considering the behavior of the owner of the car company now bearing his name, I think we could probably power the entire US electrical grid with just the energy created by Tesla spinning in his grave.