Children and Politics

According to Bethany Mandel, and her co-author Karol Markowicz, “the Left is waging an all-out battle on the American family, particularly the youngest members. If they can make our children miserable, lead them to question every building block of society, and rebuild their entire concept of reality, then the Left and their woke indoctrinators will consider that a victory.” The authors firmly believe “Our children’s lives and the survival of our families are at stake.”

In this conversation Dr. Shermer agrees with some of the authors’ conclusions, disagrees with others, and pushes back against some aspects of conservatism.

How widespread is the problem of woke ideology? Of the tens of thousands of schools and libraries, how many embrace wokeness? What is “the left” and how does it differ from liberalism, classical liberalism, and libertarianism? What are the true motives of woke progressive leftists?

Shermer and Mandel also discuss: • anecdotes vs. data about woke actions and intentions • What is a woman? What is a man? • What is trans? • sex and gender • woke medicine • transgender affirming care • libraries and publishers of children’s books • abortion: pro-Choice or pro-Life? • support for children: government or private?

Bethany Mandel is a contributing writer for Deseret News, an editor of the children’s book series Heroes of Liberty, a columnist for Fox News, and a homeschooling mother of six. She is a frequent guest and host on talk radio and occasionally appears of Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax. She has written for the New York Times, New York Post, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Spectator, and more. Bethany lives with her husband Seth and their children in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her new book, co-authored with Karol Markowicz, is Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.