Laura Hellmuth, editor-in-chief of Scientific American, has resigned after facing intense backlash for an online tirade on election night in which she called Donald Trump voters “shitbagists.”
“After four and a half exciting years as editor-in-chief, I have decided to leave Scientific American,” Hellmuth announced Thursday on his Blue Sky account.
“I’m going to take some time and think about what’s going to happen next (and go bird watching).”
Helmut’s resignation came after she made a series of social media posts on election night bashing people who voted for former President Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Solidarity to all of you whose meanest, stupidest, most bigoted high school classmates are celebrating their early results, because we’ll throw them to the moon and come back,” she wrote on November 5. I wrote this in a post on Blue Sky on Sunday.
In another post, Helmut wrote, “I apologize to my young voters that my Gen
“Every four years, I remember why I left Indiana (where I was born and raised), why I respect those who stayed, and why I strive to eliminate racism and sexism. “The moral arc of the universe does not bend itself,” she also wrote on election night.
Her post quickly sparked a fierce backlash on social media, with users calling for her resignation as she was unable to objectively carry out her job as editor-in-chief.
Shortly thereafter, Helmut deleted the post.
The next day, she shared a Scientific American article titled “Election Grief Is Real.” “Here’s How to Cope” features comments from Pauline Vos, a psychotherapist and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota.
In his article, Vos described the sadness of the election as “unresolved sadness.”
“It’s not like someone’s grief, where there’s a death certificate and then there’s a funeral and a ceremony of support and comfort. We’re stuck with this. I wrote it as frozen grief. ,” Voss wrote.
Helmut finally apologized on November 7, saying his comments were “offensive and inappropriate.”
She also claimed to “respect and value people across the political spectrum.”
Although she deleted the post, a screenshot was shared on X Tuesday, with a user asking: Or does she look like a political activist who has taken over a scientific institution?”
The post caught the attention of Elon Musk, the platform’s owner and vocal supporter of President Trump, who responded to Helmut’s rant by commenting, “The latter.”
Scientific American officially endorsed Harris over Trump for president, but this is only the second time in the magazine’s 179-year history that its editors have chosen her as a candidate for the White House. be.
The Post has reached out to Scientific American for comment.
The magazine’s president, Kimberly Lau, said Helmut had decided to resign voluntarily.
She noted that while Mr. Helmut led Scientific American, the magazine “won major science communication awards and saw the creation of a reimagined digital newsroom,” which Mr. Helmut led. I was grateful that he was in charge.
“We wish her the best for the future,” Lau said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Lau said the magazine has already begun the search for a new editor.
Hellmuth holds a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a participant in the science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, according to the magazine’s website.
She previously worked as an editor at the Smithsonian, Slate, Science magazine and the Washington Post, according to her LinkedIn profile page.
Hellmuth became editor-in-chief of Scientific American in April 2020.
