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Was Helen Keller a fraud? [No]





Came across this video and yeah. My 3rd grade teacher has got some explaining to do. Feel free to disprove the claims in the video.
 
I never really looked into her, but the idea the anyone was listening to the supposed political rantings of a person whose only perceptions of other people or the world would’ve been from their sense of touch is insane. I briefly looked at one of her speeches. She’s going on about industry grinding down people. Using all these adjectives. It’s pretty obvious she was a parrot for a charlatan.
 

BigBooper

Member
It's certainly possible given the social circles and other stuff she was involved in. I mean, she was a political activist who had not only a major theater play about her, but also a major motion picture after all...

That kind of stuff has been going on for a long time.
 
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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Seriously?
There is a certain level of irony here.
 
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ManaByte

Member
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
So wait... You don't think the deaf-blind can do things like that?

I had a friend named Mark Gasaway that was a political deaf/deaf-blind advocate and he gave speeches about work conditions and such.

Some of y'all sound so small-minded.

Mark was deaf-blind.
 
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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
So wait... You don't think the deaf-blind can do things like that?

I had a friend named Mark Gasaway that was a political deaf/deaf-blind advocate and he gave speeches about work conditions and such.

Some of y'all sound so small-minded.

Mark was deaf-blind.
Like I said, the irony of people just taking this completely random idiots word for it when he accuses her of just parroting someone else's opinion is highly amusing.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Nothing he says disprove that helen keller was a fraud. Also the way they talk about here is kinda disgusting. I never even knew who she was, but googled a bit around towards how they communicate and it seems pretty solid to me.

Also she could have been incredible intelligent and probably learn far more easier because there was nothing else she could do so those senses where probably super active and used all day long.

The only retards i see is the 5 that sit in that discussion.
 
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BigBooper

Member
I didn't watch that video when I commented earlier and had no idea how dumb the discussion actually was and thought they were talking about something else. I just played it.

I regret my words and deeds.
 

Dr Bass

Member
No, but Stevie Wonder might be.

Edit: I should have watched the video first haha. This is pretty dumb in general if you ask me. Why even concern yourself with this?
 
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Came across this video and yeah. My 3rd grade teacher has got some explaining to do. Feel free to disprove the claims in the video.


Deafblind and achieved more than that pathetic piece of crap youtuber:

The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Chancellor Angela Merkel have all honored Haben. Haben believes disability is an opportunity for innovation, and she teaches organizations the importance of choosing inclusion. The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, and TODAY Show featured her memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.

 

Lunarorbit

Member
I heard weekend at Bernies is a long lost descendant of hellen Keller.

If there's any conspiracy theory I could believe in it would be hellen Keller being a puppet. It's way more fun than thinking the moon landing is rigged.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I heard weekend at Bernies is a long lost descendant of hellen Keller.

If there's any conspiracy theory I could believe in it would be hellen Keller being a puppet. It's way more fun than thinking the moon landing is rigged.
Oh my god, you actually believe the moon is real. I did a deep dive on some research and it's just a projection on the inside of a giant dome.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Come on, dude. Frosk deleted all her tweets after the G4 meltdown, there's your anti-woke material for the week. Calling out Helen Keller as a liberal mouthpiece faking her disabilities for victim points is something you pull out when there's a dry spell in news for a couple of months. Shame.
 

Haint

Member
Come on, dude. Frosk deleted all her tweets after the G4 meltdown, there's your anti-woke material for the week. Calling out Helen Keller as a liberal mouthpiece faking her disabilities for victim points is something you pull out when there's a dry spell in news for a couple of months. Shame.

Their argument is not that Hellen Keller was faking her disability, but that she was effectively mentally retarded and used as a sock puppet by her teacher/interpreter Anne Sullivan. As far as conspiracy theories go, it's one of the more plausible IF the claims are true that Sullivan really was the only person to ever communicate with Keller. No idea of the accuracy of that though, I would assume there were other interpreters (ideally unaffiliated with Anne Sullivan) who at least partially decoded her language to confirm. Or that she was able to demonstrate higher levels of reason, logic, and understanding that did not require Sullivan directly saying or doing it for her.
 
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marcusessmith84

Neo Member
It's hard for me to say that she is a swindler and a liar. That's for God to decide, not for us. My favorite quote by Helen Keller is, “There’s nothing worse than having sight and no vision.”
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Their argument is not that Hellen Keller was faking her disability, but that she was effectively mentally retarded and used as a sock puppet by her teacher/interpreter Anne Sullivan. As far as conspiracy theories go, it's one of the more plausible IF the claims are true that Sullivan really was the only person to ever communicate with Keller. No idea of the accuracy of that though, I would assume there were other interpreters (ideally unaffiliated with Anne Sullivan) who at least partially decoded her language to confirm. Or that she was able to demonstrate higher levels of reason, logic, and understanding that did not require Sullivan directly saying or doing it for her.

There is so much to unpack here... But most hearing people are ignorant to how deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind people communicate.

But the video and posts like this suggest that deaf people are so alien that we can't understand the world at large OR that we're basically dumb.

I find the video and posts like this highly offensive.
 
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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
As far as conspiracy theories go, it's one of the more obnoxious ones.
FTFY
It basically boils down to 'she struggles with talking - therefore she is mentally retarded'
Now there is some controversy around Helen Keller - the story of her plagiarising a story when she was a kid is a fascinating read - but she was obviously very intelligent.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
There is so much to unpack here... But most hearing people are ignorant to how deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind people communicate.

But the video and posts like this suggest that deaf people are so alien that we can't understand the world at large OR that we're basically dumb.

I find the video and posts like this highly offensive.
All conspiracy theories result from people being too ignorant or simple to understand the world as it really is.
 
There is so much to unpack here... But most hearing people are ignorant to how deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind people communicate.

But the video and posts like this suggest that deaf people are so alien that we can't understand the world at large OR that we're basically dumb.

I find the video and posts like this highly offensive.
No. The discussion around how exactly a person who went blind and deaf at 19 months old (so before they could grasp complex ideas or language) could perceive the world around them well enough to form complex political opinions. Now if you can teach them braille, you can progress from there. But their world would still be insanely limited to their imagination almost exclusively.

So it was insanely presumptuous of her to be giving “speeches” about complex topics in a world that she literally could only know second hand via braille and whatever she imagined life to be like outside her mind. So either she was a puppet or she was completely out of her depth. Not to mention that the only thing that freed her from the prison of her circumstances were advances made by the industrial society she railed against. Pretty ungrateful for a person would would’ve most definitely been left to starve alone a few generations prior.

At least with most everyone else, when they read something, they can relate it to the world they have experienced. Her experience in the world was solely limited to what the could touch or what other people described the world as to her.
 
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Haint

Member
There is so much to unpack here... But most hearing people are ignorant to how deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind people communicate.

But the video and posts like this suggest that deaf people are so alien that we can't understand the world at large OR that we're basically dumb.

I find the video and posts like this highly offensive.

Their premise is not that blind/deaf people are blanket stunted or mentally retarded, but that Hellen Keller specifically was, founded entirely on the allegation she was unable to say, do, or demonstrate anything without Anne Sullivan and Anne Sullivan only literally holding her hand. While I have to assume that is not true, to be fair this was the 1800s, a time of bloodletting and literal snakeoil salesmen.
 
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Boss Mog

Member
All conspiracy theories result from people being too ignorant or simple to understand the world as it really is.
Copernicus and Galileo were considered "conspiracy theorists" in their day. Questioning things and not simply going along with what you're told has helped uncover many untruths throughout human history.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I dont know anything about Helen Keller, but it sounds like she was deaf and blind but also got into lengthy text and statements. All done through her interpreter.

To be fair, there's probably some kind of middle ground where Keller wasnt a 100% puppet, but Sullivan's translation wasnt so perfect (ie. exaggerated).

It's like an athlete answering questions in his native language and a translator beside him doing it in English. It's not a 1 for 1 exact translation. At that moment of time, it's a shoot from the hip english recap as fast as possible. Not complete. With Sullivan prepping speeches and text ahead of time did she massage Keller's communication into something more sophisticated than what she really say? Or was it truly 1 to 1?

Ghost writers doing biographies working with the celeb dont do it 1 for 1 either. They take info from the celeb and write it in an interesting way to sell books. The celeb will approve it though as they can see what is written before publishing it. If Sullivan says things about Keller (fact or fiction), Keller would never know what she says to the public.
 
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Copernicus and Galileo were considered "conspiracy theorists" in their day. Questioning things and not simply going along with what you're told has helped uncover many untruths throughout human history.

Yeah no, comparing conspiracy youtubers, flat-earthers, moon hoaxers and anti-vaxxers to genius level astronomers is f*cking dumb. The general public having trouble coping with heliocentrism doesn't automatically validate modern day conspiracy theories. If you think otherwise, tell me one single conspiracy theory that even holds any shred of scientific merit.

Also, simply being contrarian is not the same as "questioning things". Critical thinking is not synonymous with merely saying "no" or adopting a minority position.
 
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
I dont know anything about Helen Keller, but it sounds like she was deaf and blind but also got into lengthy text and statements. All done through her interpreter.

To be fair, there's probably some kind of middle ground where Keller wasnt a 100% puppet, but Sullivan's translation wasnt so perfect (ie. exaggerated).

It's like an athlete answering questions in his native language and a translator beside him doing it in English. It's not a 1 for 1 exact translation. At that moment of time, it's a shoot from the hip english recap as fast as possible. Not complete. With Sullivan prepping speeches and text ahead of time did she massage Keller's communication into something more sophisticated than what she really say? Or was it truly 1 to 1?

Ghost writers doing biographies working with the celeb dont do it 1 for 1 either. They take info from the celeb and write it in an interesting way to sell books. The celeb will approve it though as they can see what is written before publishing it. If Sullivan says things about Keller (fact or fiction), Keller would never know what she says to the public.

It's called transliterating. You can't 1:1 ASL. The structure of grammar of ASL is different from English. It's more akin to Spanish grammatical rules than English grammar.
 
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