The Super-Weird Origins of the Right’s Hatred of the Smithsonian

Photo: Dr. C. Lewis Gazin, Smithsonian paleontologist, studying mammal bones at the Smithsonian Institution – 5/8/37. Photo credit: Harris & Ewing Collection via the Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. Article by Jason Colavito. The New Republic – August 21, 2025.

Did you hear the one about the Smithsonian hiding the bones of Bible giants in the basement? No? Well, Missouri Republican Representative Eric Burlinson did, and he recently said he wants to develop a “strategy” to use Congress’s investigative power to get to the bottom of the mystery. “I do believe [giants] were real,” Burlinson told a Blaze TV program in June, shortly before he gave a speech at NephCon 2025, a gathering of people who are hunting the remains of the Nephilim, or the giants from the Book of Genesis. […]

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