If you missed it: at an Oct. 17 town hall in Caro, Michigan, a guy calling himself “Tommy” stood up and demanded that Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (who is Muslim) disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed said “absolutely,” then flipped it on him and walked him through the Constitution and religious freedom.

Tommy, who said he was Christian, wouldn’t disavow putting religious doctrine into law, and the crowd sent him off chanting “Bye, Tommy.”

Turns out he’s Thomas Teepell, a former Josh Hawley staffer. And his dad is Timmy Teepell, who was homeschooled in Baton Rouge by a family active in the local homeschool movement. As a teen, Timmy met Michael Farris (HSLDA founder in case you don't know) and went to work for Farris’s lobbying group in D.C., then ran Farris’s Madison Project PAC. From there he became Bobby Jindal’s campaign manager, then his chief of staff as Louisiana governor, and later ran Jindal’s 2016 presidential campaign.

ML Greynolds wrote a great Substack piece on this called “The Indoctrination Long Game,” and the title says it all...Mike Farris and the HSLDA never hid the plan: raise a generation of homeschooled kids, train them up, and send them into politics. Timmy is that plan succeeding. He went from Farris’s lobbying shop to running a governor’s office, and now his son is standing up at a town hall telling a Muslim candidate he’d keep religious doctrine in the law. That’s two generations of indoctrination, and it’s the long game paying off exactly as designed.

Greynolds also writes about growing up in that culture and slowly becoming a skeptic of it, which a lot of us here will recognize.

Jindal’s group America Next reportedly offered college Republicans money to go heckle El-Sayed events. No proof Tommy was paid or sent, but still I wouldn't be surprised...

Greynolds says Tommy was homeschooled too, but I haven’t found another source confirming it. Anyone know?

Link to the substack piece: https://mlgreynolds.substack.com/p/the-indoctrination-long-game

Im really curious who on the team has experience w homeschooled kids, bc the main actress has that slightly overformal, confident in a way that is learned/enforced not felt, thing that I feel like everyone around me growing up had down PAT. Her mannerisms and way of speaking are fantastic. Im only on episode 3, but so far I've enjoyed this so much and it's been so hopecore for me. I watched the 2 first movie versions before I started this and for both, really wished that theyd used the film to flesh out her background because it is so relevant and real. I wish it was a reality that a social worker really would do this, but Im so pleased to see representation of why we are the way we are, how it is at home, and WHY our parents want to homeschool.

Im actually really curious to ask in another forum how accurate the depiction of high school is, because I don't know lmao!!! I had no idea shooter drills had people w actual guns? And I knew they have the metal detectors but wow it was weird to see. Also so curious if this is an accurate depiction of what bullying looks like.

Anyone else have thoughts? (hopefully w no spoilers🙈)

I know this might be a stupid question, but like HOW do you make friends in your 20’s?? For a little bit of context, I was homeschooled since middle school, so I grew up having literally no friends and was completely isolated for the majority of my life. I’m now a 21 year old college freshman and I literally know nobody, and I mean LITERALLY nobody. My socials look so odd because I don’t have any followers and my contacts consist literally only of my immediate family and my local Mexican restaurant. It’s starting to get really embarrassing and pretty depressing being a grown woman without anyone to talk to and hangout with that’s around my age.

I was kinda under the impression that when I started college that I’d naturally make friends just by being around people, but last semester proved that wasn’t the case and I still don’t really know anyone. This semester I tried joining my club’s LGBTQ club (I’m a lesbian) thinking that might help since it’s a social setting, but unfortunately it wasn’t available to join, and none of the other clubs my college has really seem like something I’d enjoy or would be good for socializing with people. People in my classes have talked with me before, but it never went past surface level conversations and we’ve never spoken again. Since I’m a 21 year old freshmen, it just seems weird for me to try to make friends with people I’m assuming are younger than me, so I’m not actively trying to talk to people for that reason.

It really doesn’t help my situation that I have extreme social anxiety that I developed from growing up so isolated. I literally can’t have a single conversation with someone without feeling like I’m gonna have an anxiety attack. My heart will start beating out of my chest and I’ll start feeling like I’m burning up to the point my face will turn apple red, even if the conversation only lasts like 5 seconds. I’m just so scared that since I’m homeschooled and lack social skills that I come off as weird or off-putting to people. I’m terrified that people are going to think I’m weird and every time I talk to someone it feels like I’m desperately trying to seem likable and normal, but I’ll always find something I did or said to overthink and torture myself over for weeks, even if it’s something small and insignificant like the way I was standing. It literally feels like I’m an alien that knows absolutely nothing about humans and is trying to blend in with the human race.

My two main questions are how could I go about making friends as a 21 year old woman and how do I cope with my social anxiety? I live in a pretty small town, so there really aren’t many social events/spaces to go to even if I was brave enough to go. I’d prefer to have in-person friends to physically go hangout with, but at this point I’d be fine with a way to make virtual friends as well. I’m actually really anxious to post this since I never really post anything publicly and I’ve never shared anything this personal to anyone before. I apologize if this post is kinda long, I just want to fully explain my situation and kinda vent too. This is also my first time posting on Reddit, so yippee.

So I got my learners permit in early 2024 and so far I’ve only got 3 drivers lessons from parents. I live in dc so they only last 2 years but because of this apathy to be taught nearly 2 years later and I’m nowhere near ready to take my road test. Side note that in dc after age 21 (I’m 23) there is no minimum driving time before taking the test. I don’t know how to drive on a highway are barely know how to navigate streets.

Before anyone mentions driving school. It’s extremely, extremely expensive ($500 for 8 hours I think) I can’t afford it, I am in between jobs rn. I don’t know what to do I really don’t. I’m already embarrassed because I know I’m a huge loser (no I don’t wanna hear “you’re not a loser” in the comments) because I don’t have my GED or diploma either and all of my peers have both. My parents have just been apathetic and not very supportive of me since 6th grade after deciding to throw me into online school which wasn’t for me.

I seriously need a drivers license because I need independence

I was homeschooled literally my entire life. Until I went to college at age 18, I never spoke to someone within twenty years of my age (aside from my brother). When I finally went to college, my social skills were so garbage I literally couldn’t interact with anyone around me. I made friends and routinely fucked everything up with them because I was essentially a toddler in the body of an 18 year old. Now I’m 22 and graduated and I’ve learned a lot. My social skills, I believe, are much better now but now I am back to never being around anyone my age, just like my entire life before college. How do you meet people? I went to meet up groups but they’re mostly people in their 30s-40s who think I’m weird for not having friends at my age. I joined local classes but it’s the same. I go to the bar by my house and it’s the same. My coworkers are all men in their 40s-50s and don’t want to hang out with a 22 year old woman unless sex comes with it, ditto for guys I meet at the comic store (sucks because I love comic books). Where do 20-something’s….. go. What do they do. Why am I always just out of step with everyone my age, once I finally catch up they’ve moved on. How does anyone live being this lonely?

Hello all- I don’t normally post on Reddit but I am struggling with how to deal with the ramifications of my high school experience as a homeschooler.

I am 24 years old and I have wanted to go to college since I was a kid. I have a great relationship with my parents, but I find myself at a loss often with how unprepared they left me for a potential further education. Neither of them attended college, and I am the oldest, so I don’t think they really considered what I would need in the future to pursue a further education past high school.

The struggle I am having is that I basically have no legal proof of my high school education. My transcript is written up in a Google doc, my high school diploma was printed through a random website and signed by my mother, and I have no signed superintendent letter. I have tried to get one from the board of education in the state I grew up in but they were never able to validate it.

I am at a loss and feeling so discouraged that I am rejected from every college I apply to because my transcript is not considered valid and I have no other choice then to pursue my GED. I guess I am just wondering if this is a unique experience or if other ex-homeschoolers have felt this kind of experience.

Thanks for reading my rant, I just signed up for GED classes. 🙃