Bethany Mandel, the controversial right-wing pundit, home-schooling advocate, and prolific social media poster, is running for county school board — as a Democrat.
Though the school board race in deep-blue Montgomery County, Maryland, is technically nonpartisan, Mandel’s campaign published a graphic on Tuesday listing her as a Democrat. The move quickly raised eyebrows online, and prompted a community note on X (formerly Twitter) stating, “Bethany Mandel has identified as a Republican numerous times on her personal Twitter account.”
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Those who know Mandel recognize her for writing molten-hot takes and far-right political commentary. The most infamous was a column, published in the wake of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, titled “We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.” (Mandel is Jewish.) Her content can be cringey, like her column defending Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife: “If Casey DeSantis is a Karen, she’s our Karen.” She’s posted dehumanizing rhetoric, too. “Not nuking these fucking animals is the only restraint I expect and that’s only because the cloud would hurt Israelis,” she’s written about Palestinians.
Homeschooling is child abuse, in the majority of cases. Kids need to interact with other kids, and be taught by people who are trained to do it effectively with curriculum that isn’t based on the invisible man in the sky’s alleged preferences.
haha no it isn’t, don’t be absurd about topics for which you only scratch the surface in knowing anything about. Please further don’t pretend you’re a child psychologist who has the end-all interpretation of understanding what children need.
You refer to homeschooling in stereotypes as though every homeschooled household is the Turpin family. Your frame of reference is squarely based on on the worst offenders that hit the news headlines. Yet throughout university you probably didn’t realize there were many of us in your classes who socialized just fine and aced classes in a variety of difficult majors.
You stereotype homeschooling from these outliers; such pointing to worst offenders is like if I were to point out the prevalence of school shooters and teen suicides public schooling produces and the associated risks and blanketing that as a reason to not go to public-school. It’s almost like there’s a bit more nuance than you lend credence. I’ll even be willing to submit cons that should be addressed and considered before anyone else considers for themselves.
So if you’re really interested in extending this beyond your shallow understanding, then please, let’s engage in this wholeheartedly and I can provide with both reason and evidence precisely why you’re incorrect. You miss a wide variety of benefits from homeschooling that I’d be happy to walk you through if you are genuinely interested in going beyond mere stereotypes.
For starters, please separate religious fundamentalism from the act of schooling; these are two separate things and secular homeschoolers like us who believe in science and quality education exist.
Signed, a homeschooled person now in his 30s who excelled in a STEM field and is now married with 2 kids to a publicly-schooled wife who agrees with the merits of homeschooling.
Why are you writing like you’re attempting to sound smart? Anyway, for someone who “excelled” in college, you provide surprisingly little substance in your argument. So I’ll gently call you out: Convince us you’re not just basing your entire argument off of personal experience.
Now I’m not saying I’m on either side. I’ve heard reports from both ends of that spectrum. So, lennybird, which side should we accept more strongly?
The top level comment literally provides zero substance. Why didn’t you call it out?
Substance wasn’t really my focus. We all have the capacity to look things up ourselves. How the other user said it, the snarkiness and better-than-thou feel, it felt like a bit much. I’m all for opinions, they get conversations going and usually someone learns something or at least has a good time. You’re right though, I should have asked for the same from the original comment and not gotten stuck on the one.
Have an upvote, I deserve the call out here.
My god, man.
The double-standard is palpable. So I’m “snarky,” but you’re a liar.
I matched snarkiness with snarkiness; the previous user literally called what I went through and what I do for my kids “child abuse” and you don’t fucking object to that? I’m not supposed to get passionate about that? Should I have written more typos, kissed their ass more? What would’ve received your blessing, exactly?
Give me a fucking break and grow up.
Tell me, what exactly did I write that makes me, “sound smart”? Please, be detailed. Is that your own insecurity talking? I’ve written many comments like this on other subjects, but isn’t it funny how it’s this specific subject-matter that makes people so often attack my character. Isn’t that more of a reflection on you? Let’s just start here before proceeding further.
For calling me out on little substance, it’s curious that both (1) You haven’t given any support to the opposite conclusion whatsoever, and (2) have only lightly cherry-picked at what you perceive as being low-hanging fruit without really countering anything, or even offering genuine questions of inquiry.
Nothing. Trying to, like they said? Plenty.
Oh really? Like where?
Edit: Just as I suspected. Low-blow cheapshot snarkiness;… But nothing in the way of substance.
You’re deflecting, just like you have in other replies I’ve seen. Substance. You have the proof, right? It’s important, so share with the class.
How am I deflecting? Is this projection? You’re deflecting, actually. Again, do tell me where I attempt to “sound smart.”
Just gave it to the other user. Feel free to read.
They were home schooled. They don’t know what that means.
Damn. You’re kind of an asshole, aren’t you? Mother must be proud, huh buddy?
Did you learn bullying and ganging up on people in school, too?
Ironically, yeah, sort of.
Learning to read the room and make jokes (sometimes at other’s expense) is certainly something you learn from frequently socializing outside of your immediate circle.
Something that your extreme touchiness in this thread highlights. You’re in an internet forum taking an aggressive stance on something unpopular, and repeatedly whine that other’s aren’t held to the same expectations.
You stood on the hill to die. You chose that. You homeschooling mommy and daddy can’t insulate you when you leave your safe space.
And yes, that last snark was bullying. I couldn’t help myself.
Ah yes, the tragedy of identifying cognitive bias and desiring “same expectations.”
How very wrong and terrible of me, lol.
But yes, please keep putting doubling-down on your own ignorance and ego above learning.
That I’m nothing like you is something I am quite proud of, so I guess I’ll leave it there.
I’m just looking at nces statistics, specifically the percentage of parents that homeschool for moral or religious reasons, and drawing conclusions that may very well be bullshit. Glad it worked out for you, but I can’t help but feel sorry for kids I’ve known who would have benefited from a secular education. It’s pretty embarrassing to explain evolution to a twentysomething.
I confess I was a bit triggered by calling it child abuse in blanket terms, so I thank you for this comment. It’s not suitable for everyone and yes, absolutely religious fundamentalism is a major issue. It just sucks for secular parents like us to be under that umbrella generalization. I suspect if one could partition data between secular and religious homeschooled groups there would be a pretty stark contrast in performance and objective life satisfaction.
Lmfao I love that your argument for home schooling includes talking down on someone’s intelligence for not being qualified to speak on child psychology. Yet you’re advocating that people that aren’t qualified should be allowed to teach their kids and don’t yourself have a degree relating to the field
My guy, the dude literally called it child abuse without any evidence or position of expertise whatsoever. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you can point to me where homeschooling is classified as child abuse under any major regulatory body or psychology association, I’ll eat my words.
There is evidence that homeschooling yields more effective outcomes, so while your response is cute and snarky, it isn’t really grounded in anything substantive. One would know this if they actually knew anything about homeschooling.
Fuck it. Since nobody seems to care about hyperbole I’ll just call public schooling child abuse. After all, I’d bet money that even after factoring proportionality more suicides and homicides occur as a direct result of public schooling.