Bethany Mandel

[Anonymous]

I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

Oh Bethany's not passive-aggressive about women without as many children as she'd like, she's just aggressive. I really enjoy being a mother and think it's worthwhile. My sister and one friend are on the fence about kids, so, when it comes up organically I just say, oh, I really enjoyed being pregnant and love having kids! I don't tweet at them in all caps HAVING SEX TO GET PREGNANT WAS SO HOT I KEEP GETTING KNOCKED UP CHINA IS BEATING US BECAUSE YOU B****ES WON'T HAVE 37 KIDS EACH. Lead by example, not by shaming.

And, fwiw, she acts like literally no millennial women want children. I'm a millennial woman with three, and almost all of my friends have kids. It's only the one friend from college and my sister (who, to be fair, I believe counts as a zoomer due to our age difference...she's 26 and I believe just isn't at the point where she can visualize it) who don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

No one brought up her kids. I'd be the first to say that isn't appropriate, but it just didn't happen. All anyone said was that Bethany took a sick child to the pool. That's not on the kid, that's on Bethany. It was a judgment of Bethany.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

The only reason that her children were mentioned here is because Bethany herself mentioned them on twitter and on a large public listserv. Privacy is for the private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

The only reason that her children were mentioned here is because Bethany herself mentioned them on twitter and on a large public listserv. Privacy is for the private.

Bethany has a victim complex and the sad fact of the matter is the more we respond, the more energy she derives. All it took was one idiot to not get her Neo-Nazis article and she was addicted to being a martyr. So when someone posts about her on a parenting website, she acts like people are judging her kids for their behavior. When in reality, we posted on a political forum about a political editor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

No one brought up her kids. I'd be the first to say that isn't appropriate, but it just didn't happen. All anyone said was that Bethany took a sick child to the pool. That's not on the kid, that's on Bethany. It was a judgment of Bethany.

The post on the first page that described them as "4 badly behaved kids" seemed in the category of bringing up the kids. Sounds like others read it as being critical of Bethany, not her kids, so okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Bethany but, yeah, the insistence on "breeding" while passive-aggressively judging women who don't have a lot (or any) kids is a bit off-putting. I get that she's trying to encourage people to have big families and showing by example how nice it can be, which serves a purpose, but it sometimes comes across as trying too hard to prove that it's a fulfilling lifestyle...which isn't necessary as most people make their lifestyle choices based upon their personal experiences, capabilities and desires.

Understandably, it bothered her that her children were brought up in this thread, and I agree with her that it's unkind to do that.

No one brought up her kids. I'd be the first to say that isn't appropriate, but it just didn't happen. All anyone said was that Bethany took a sick child to the pool. That's not on the kid, that's on Bethany. It was a judgment of Bethany.

The post on the first page that described them as "4 badly behaved kids" seemed in the category of bringing up the kids. Sounds like others read it as being critical of Bethany, not her kids, so okay.

Oh. Yeah, I took it as a critique of Bethany's parenting skills because of how it was worded - like, the kids were badly behaved because it was a pool (where they understandably would be having fun) and specifically mentioned Bethany not watching them.

[Anonymous]

Someone on Twitter laughed because they couldn’t believe someone would accuse Bethany of trying to keep immigrants out of her neighborhood. Read it and weep. https://www.nj.com/middlesex/2015/11/syrian_refugees_frank_pallone_highland_park_event.html

Bethany Mandel, a borough resident, was one voice of dissent in the crowd, arguing that opposition to a surge of refugees is not, contrary to some statements at Monday's event, rooted ignorance. There are real concerns about radicalization of immigrants, with real-life precedents, she argued.

"Those concerns have now been declared xenophobic," said Mandel, who noted that she was probably the lone Republican in the room (the densely populated borough has a hard-won reputation for liberal activism, banning, for example, cigarettes for those under 21 and nuclear weapons across the board). "It makes you not want to engage in a conversation like this."

If you fundraise for North Korean refugees but try to stop Syrians from living in your own backyard, it cancels each other out. She’s talked previously about how North Koreans are often treated as suspicious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethany on twitter: "I wrote a picture book series for kids."
My thoughts: "Cute!"
Bethany: "It's about conservative heroes."
Me: "...okay...like, specifically who?"
Bethany: "Ronald Reagan!"
Me: "Oh, okay! Well he was a good guy."
Bethany: "And Amy Coney Barrett."
Me: "Not a fan of how McConnell got her in there, but sure, she's a good role model for young women."
Bethany: "I'm not including Trump. I'm not into indoctrinating kids."
Me: "Yeah, smart thinking."
Bethany: "Anyway, keep an eye out for the next picture book in the series on Rush Limbaugh!"

Are you KIDDING ME? Bethany, do not hold this man up as a conservative "hero." He literally laughed about people dying of HIV/AIDS in the 80s. There are tons of conservative journalists for you to choose from, tons of them, and this is what you chose? Really?

Oh, and the best part was her explanation for this was "He could teach kids a lot about being honest about what they think!" I mean...sure, I guess? If they think hateful things? Jesus, I'd rather you write about William F. Buckley threatening to punch Gore Vidal. Like I would literally rather read that story to my five year old than A N Y T H I N G Rush said. And I'm including the part where he called Vidal "queer."

She thinks parents want to teach their kids to poke fun at the appearance of adolescent girls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone on Twitter laughed because they couldn’t believe someone would accuse Bethany of trying to keep immigrants out of her neighborhood. Read it and weep. https://www.nj.com/middlesex/2015/11/syrian_refugees_frank_pallone_highland_park_event.html

Bethany Mandel, a borough resident, was one voice of dissent in the crowd, arguing that opposition to a surge of refugees is not, contrary to some statements at Monday's event, rooted ignorance. There are real concerns about radicalization of immigrants, with real-life precedents, she argued.

"Those concerns have now been declared xenophobic," said Mandel, who noted that she was probably the lone Republican in the room (the densely populated borough has a hard-won reputation for liberal activism, banning, for example, cigarettes for those under 21 and nuclear weapons across the board). "It makes you not want to engage in a conversation like this."

If you fundraise for North Korean refugees but try to stop Syrians from living in your own backyard, it cancels each other out. She’s talked previously about how North Koreans are often treated as suspicious.

Oh man. I liked that Bethany was supporting Afghan refugees! Guess now we know she only supports them because she wants to be able to point out how badly Biden f'd up. (and she would have a point there, but I'm just saying this is very disingenuous.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethany on twitter: "I wrote a picture book series for kids."
My thoughts: "Cute!"
Bethany: "It's about conservative heroes."
Me: "...okay...like, specifically who?"
Bethany: "Ronald Reagan!"
Me: "Oh, okay! Well he was a good guy."
Bethany: "And Amy Coney Barrett."
Me: "Not a fan of how McConnell got her in there, but sure, she's a good role model for young women."
Bethany: "I'm not including Trump. I'm not into indoctrinating kids."
Me: "Yeah, smart thinking."
Bethany: "Anyway, keep an eye out for the next picture book in the series on Rush Limbaugh!"

Are you KIDDING ME? Bethany, do not hold this man up as a conservative "hero." He literally laughed about people dying of HIV/AIDS in the 80s. There are tons of conservative journalists for you to choose from, tons of them, and this is what you chose? Really?

Oh, and the best part was her explanation for this was "He could teach kids a lot about being honest about what they think!" I mean...sure, I guess? If they think hateful things? Jesus, I'd rather you write about William F. Buckley threatening to punch Gore Vidal. Like I would literally rather read that story to my five year old than A N Y T H I N G Rush said. And I'm including the part where he called Vidal "queer."

She thinks parents want to teach their kids to poke fun at the appearance of adolescent girls?

Right? I grew up in a conservative family in the deep south. I get wanting to set an example for kids, especially who are being raised with conservative values, that it's important to stand up for what you believe in and stand behind your convictions. Truly, I get it. As a conservative from the south who moved up north where people were more liberal than I was used to, in my early 20s I rarely spoke up or defended my beliefs. (And now in my 30s I'm in a weird place where I'm too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals.) But for the life of me, I can't understand why Rush is the poster boy for this. I can't think of anyone who openly listened to him other than my grandpa, who was a horrible racist (more a Trump conservative than a Romney conservative).

Anyway, off the top of my head I can think of five Republicans who were better examples of speaking up for what's right than Rush. Bethany won't use them because as much as she's "not into indoctrinating kids," she's already sold out to the MAGA crowd. She wants to have the best of both worlds - fealty to Trump while also pretending she is horrified by all that he did post-election.

[Anonymous]

Bethany comes from the long tradition of people who desperately want an audience but just aren’t very bright and don’t have anything very interesting to say. She has to keep up the performative outrage to make it seem like she’s got something worth paying attention to. Spoiler alert: she doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

There are two groups of conservative women on twitter. The intellectuals and the outraged. The intellectuals are busy discussing ideas and advocating for policies that change other women's lives. The outraged are always pissed off about something. Right now it's masks, vaccine mandates (even though they're all vaccinated) and CRT.

So, I hate to pit women against each other, but as there are in all areas of life, there are better choices. If you're looking for conservative women to follow on twitter, I would recommend Alyssa Farah, Margaret Hoover, and S.E. Cupp. I am sure they are not conservative enough for the outraged types but I personally think they add more to the conversation.

[Anonymous]

What amazes me is that Bethany doesn’t see the hypocrisy in so many areas of her life. She’s angry about this forum but she is constantly criticizing other people. She regularly posts info from private forums publicly online so she can slag off on other people. She is the first in line to criticize other parents (and the behavior of other kids) even going so far as to subtweet so-called friends.

[Anonymous]

For better or for worse (lol 100% for worse) I'm #VeryOnline for politics and had no idea who this woman was until I saw this thread.

I see from her twitter profile she's a "contributing writer" for Deseret News, which is paper based in Utah owned by Church of Latter Day Saints. According to wikipedia"the paper's name is derived from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon". How does someone like her end up contributing articles to some right wing Mormon paper based out of Utah?

Because I was curious about why she had a thread I googled her and this article came up:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/conservative-influencer-bethany-mandel-says-you-can-call-her-a-grandma-killer/

She was raised by a Catholic mother, decided to embrace Judaism once she got to university, and converted to Orthodox judaism when she met her husband.

As a Jew myself, I'm always fascinated by people like her - converts who become strident and judgmental voices.

Anyway, read that Times of Israel article I linked to. It's a conservative outlet but what's funny is the article is supposed to by one of the soft touch promotional articles that paper is known for - but for anyone outside its right wing audience she comes off like a moron.