1y ago

Social Media's Cringiest Conservative Is Running for School Board -- As a Democrat

www.rollingstone.com Social Media's Cringiest Conservative Is Running for School Board -- As a Democrat

Right-wing commentator and homeschool advocate Bethany Mandel talks with Rolling Stone about her campaign for school board.

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.”

…

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.

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Classic gop fraud
- I can't count the number of times a Democratic candidate has tried this shit in a deep red district. As soon as I hear about it happening, then... y'know... one time.
  
  Didn't Kyrsten Sinema basically do this?

No thank you.

This needs to not be legal.
- As a condition of running for a nonpartisan office I think you should be forbidden to claim association with any political party.
  
  Which party a school board member was a part of was incredibly impactful during the pandemic and directly influenced what actions were taken to protect the students. 'non partisan' is a myth in this day and age.
  
  For lots of local offices, there can almost no information about the candidates...but I've found that if you take 5 mintes to search facebook, the extremists are pretty good about outing themselves...especially if you take the time to learn a few dog whistles.

Attention seeker seeks attention.

"We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.” (Mandel is Jewish.)
“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.
Oh hey, looks like you already started making those friends. What a worthless cunt.

I wonder if she figured out what "woke" is yet?
- Conservatism is the opposite of whatever liberals stand for, updated daily.

“Playing along with delusions isn’t a kindness to those suffering from other psychological conditions.”
Yet, you worship Donald Trump. Curious!

School boards have political parties?
- Homey this is America in the 21st century. Hamburgers have political parties.
  
  My previous favorite hamburger is 2 faced. In my state they have no mask restrictions, in other states they operate in they prohibit masks under any condition. Now I spend a bit (4x as much as I used to spend, 2x as much as current prices) more at a local place, and my burger looks like one you'd see in an advertisement, every time.
  
  Hamburgers, probably. Chicken sandwiches we know do
- It’s literally in the summary
  
  Yes I read that, I was expressing shock at the concept itself. Sorry for any confusion
- As somebody whose dad was involved in getting 2 schools built while I was in school and was also president of the schoolboard for a time before that, I can confidently say that anybody who runs for a schoolboard position is doing so because they have an agenda.
  Oftentimes, that agenda is "I want our schools to be better for our kids," but not always. Sometimes, people run because they have differing opinions on what making schools better means, but sometimes (and rather often right now, it seems) you get somebody whose only goal is to burn it to the ground. Those are the kinds of people who care about political parties in schoolboards - because they're so obsessed with the us vs. them of their politics that it shapes the rest of their lives.
  Local politics can be a cutthroat and dirty game. I'll always remember my dad telling me about how he was walking out of a town meeting one time when he saw an old lady point to him and loudly say to her friends, "That's him! That's the enemy!"
- They do where I live, yes. I know they don't everywhere though.

Run as a Dem and win: LLUL DEMZ ZO ZTUPID
Run as a Dem and lose: WAAAAHHHH CENZURSHIP CANZEL CULTURE
Calling it.

Can't tell if shes 35 or 53

This is the best summary I could come up with:
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 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.)
Mandel’s campaign is part of a broader push by conservative culture warriors to take over school boards and decide what children can be taught.
Oklahoma’s Republican superintendent of public schools recently appointed the woman who runs Libs of TikTok, the anti-LGBTQ meme account, to a state library advisory committee.
In a column defending her refusal to use trans people’s chosen names and pronouns, she wrote: “Playing along with delusions isn’t a kindness to those suffering from other psychological conditions.”
The original article contains 1,226 words, the summary contains 156 words. Saved 87%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

"If not me, then who?" An opposing candidate, that's who, even if that opposing candidate is my cat, you flaming sack of kookery.

Is that what he looks like? Oh yuck! No wonder she's such a bitter hag

I've registered as republican a long time ago to vote in their primaries so just in case the republican nomination won the general election, it was at least someone I could somewhat tolerate until the next election. People do do this.
- There's a difference between changing registration to vote in a primary and changing party label to run for an actual seat.
- Did you run for political office as a Republican at any point?
  Shes lying about her party affliction in an attempt to win an election. These are wildly different things.
  
  her party affliction
  The best typo.

Fuckers give homeschooling a bad name when it has so much potential.
- 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.

Maybe this will finally be a wakeup call for people who go around saying "vote blue no matter who"
- Voting for the Team Fortress 2 spy candidate is not "voting blue."
  
  TFC 4EVR
  
  Who decides who's blue?

82 comments