Notices by Rebecca Watson (rebeccawatson@mstdn.social)

Texas has approved a new, more Bible-focused curriculum that will have 5-year olds learning the story of Genesis in which God makes the universe in six days and doesn't know the difference between a fish and a vegetable https://skepchick.org/2025/10/texas-is-teaching-the-bible-to-kindergarteners/

Thinking about Jane Goodall, and how her legacy is inextricably tied up with the legacy of colonialism. Also: Bigfoot. https://skepchick.org/2025/10/jane-goodall-and-the-legacy-of-colonialism/

As a “New Atheist” of the early 2000s, I knew it was crucial to stop the Religious Right from destroying the wall separating Church & State. But even I didn’t think that by 2025 the President would green light sending ppl to Guantanamo for being “anti-Christian.” https://skepchick.org/2025/10/trump-declares-atheists-are-terrorists/

It's understandable if you missed or forgot when, two weeks ago, an American public university fired three people for telling students that LGBTQ+ people exist. I think it's worth keeping it on our radar because it's extremely fucked up https://skepchick.org/2025/09/fired-for-mentioning-lgbtq-people-exist/

Are you wondering why RFK decided to blame Tylenol for causing autism? It wasn’t as random as it may seem! https://skepchick.org/2025/09/the-lack-of-science-behind-tylenol-autism/

Charlie Kirk was a Nazi and no one should be expected to engage in performative mourning over his murder. https://skepchick.org/2025/09/charlie-kirk-and-the-empathy-paradox/

Now that the President of the United States has sent the military to take over American cities and oppress civilians, I thought it would be fun to check in with the men who claimed to be terrified about this happening a decade ago when the president was Black. https://skepchick.org/2025/08/checking-in-on-jade-helm-conspiracy-theorists-10-years-later/

Still think that those laws to “protect the children” are about keeping kids from seeing hardcore porn? Let’s talk about the Christian conservatives who are stopping adults from playing video games like Grand Theft Auto https://skepchick.org/2025/08/maga-is-coming-for-your-video-games/

Costco announced they will not stock mifepristone in their pharmacies. Contrary to viral social media posts, this IS a big deal and it DOES mean that they caved to pressure from far-right MAGA anti-woman conservatives. Here I go over the evidence and what you can do https://skepchick.org/2025/08/costco-gives-misogynists-a-win-by-not-selling-abortion-medication/

I've covered several cases of scientific fraud, but this might be the craziest: a 2nd year MIT doctoral student got glowing press in WaPo, NPR, and more for a preprint he made up out of whole cloth
https://skepchick.org/2025/08/did-this-kid-use-ai-to-fake-research-about-how-great-ai-is/

Remember that stupid NYT hit piece about Zohran Mamdani correctly identifying his racial makeup on a college application? The real story is that the Times got the story from a violently racist Nazi who hacked the personal data of thousands of people https://skepchick.org/2025/07/how-a-nazi-helped-the-new-york-times-smear-zohran-mamdani/

Lots of people are now debating debates: are they persuasive? Worthless? Should Nazis be invited? That last one is a very clear, "no." Anyway enjoy this video I had to recut bc noted Nazi platform Jubilee wanted all my ad money to use a 1-min clip in a 15-min video. https://skepchick.org/2025/07/debating-fascists/

We got rid of (most of) the leaded gas but the children, they yearn for lead. And thus, a new study shows that 1) Gen X is fucked thanks to their childhood lead exposure and 2) younger generations are sucking on vapes that are chock full of the shit 🧪 https://skepchick.org/2025/07/lead-study-gen-x-are-the-new-boomers/

I don't shy away from criticizing conspiracy theories that come from the left, which is why you know I'm serious when I say that the Epstein/Trump connection is absolutely NOT a conspiracy theory. It's just a rational conclusion to come to from the evidence we have https://skepchick.org/2025/07/the-trump-epstein-story-is-not-a-conspiracy-theory/

RFK Jr. is amping up his villain era by formally announcing he's going to murder a million babies https://skepchick.org/2025/06/rfk-is-going-to-murder-a-million-babies/

I've been talking about con artists for two decades, and this is one of the worst scams I've ever seen: fake immigration lawyers are taking advantage of immigrants who want to legally live in the US but are scared of being abducted by ICE thugs https://skepchick.org/2025/06/ice-is-helping-predators-scam-immigrants/

With anti-Trump protests ramping up, I’ve seen some misinformation being spread even by people with good intentions. So here’s a quick correction on what the science says about dealing with tear gas 🧪 https://skepchick.org/2025/06/how-to-actually-deal-with-tear-gas/

Ethan Klein, of h3h3 fame, is using his lawyer to try to silence his anti-genocide critics. Here's why that's particularly ironic for Klein to do, what it has to do with science & critical thinking, & updates on previous libel bullies I've covered https://skepchick.org/2025/05/h3h3s-ethan-klein-sues-to-stop-criticism/

Adam Conover got famous for promoting critical thinking in his show “Adam Ruins Everything.” Now he’s getting paid to promote an orb that scans your eyeball in exchange for crypto currency, which was trained on poor villagers in Africa and Southeast Asia. Yes, really. https://skepchick.org/2025/05/adam-conover-ruins-his-own-reputation/

NOAA is America’s oldest scientific agency. They help farms produce food, keep ships from sinking, warn people about natural disasters, and collect and analyze the data we need to understand global warming. This month, Republicans are throwing it all away. https://skepchick.org/2025/05/trump-is-destroying-our-oldest-science-agency/