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.
Ignore them. Some kids just do better homeschooled and it’s the lesser of evils, either you sacrifice the benefit they get from socializing or you sacrifice how they do in school because they can’t handle being around people like that.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted here too but fuck em. Way too many people are so full of themselves they think they know more about a situation than those who have or are living it.
To be fair though, the majority of homeschooled kids are likely being kept home and forced to learn some religious bullshit and the only socializing they get is with other religious nutjobs doing the same to their kids. Not saying that was your situation, just a statement of fact.
The most sensible comment yet, thank you.
I’ve mentioned in another comment or two the same thing: Obviously religious fundamentalism is a major problem. But that’s its own problem, not homeschooling.
My upbringing was a little unique in that regard. I was raised in a Christian household but we weren’t evangelical, really. By the time I reached my teens my entire family kind of went through a paradigm shift for various reasons away from religion and conservatism and went full-blown progressive-left. Some of that is thanks to the internet; some of that is thanks to my parents’ reflection of the US invasion of Iraq and its parallels to the Vietnam War and their hippie days.
Either way I definitely don’t see homeschooling as fitting the circumstances of every family, and it certainly has its cons that need addressed as well. For my kids (and with my wife’s AP/Honors public school perspective) we think we can do better for our kids.