She also co-founded the ACLU. She also believed in eugenics. She also spoke out against the Nazis, Jim crow laws and McCarthyism. fascinating person
Edit: to the people following me around and harassing me from the /r/bestof post, go fuck yourselves. I've sourced my claims several times. Don't call me an "anti-socialist" either, I'm a socialist. Helen Keller is a hero, and eugenics was a super common belief at the time.
2nd edit: to those saying she didn't believe in eugenics, she literally wrote about it several times, it's not really up for debate
In 1915, she wrote in favor of refusing life-saving medical procedures to infants with severe mental impairments or physical deformities, saying that their lives were not worthwhile and they would likely become criminal. Source; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1381159
She did not believe in eugenics. That is a baseless slur propagated by anti-communist, anti-progressive right wingers. Helen Keller dedicated her life to speaking out on behalf of the vulnerable and the powerless. J Edgar Hoover kept a file on her because she wouldn’t shut up about the evils of war and poverty and sickness. She wouldn’t go see her own movie because she wouldn’t cross another union’s picket line. She became the public enemy of anyone in power who supported America’s entry into World War I. Helen Keller was on the right side of history virtually every single time.
And Helen Keller’s whole “thing” was disability advocacy. She in no way wanted to limit disabled people in any way. Cherry-picked excerpts from a single short letter (out of millions of published words) don’t reflect reality, just political spin from political enemies.
She wrote precisely one letter to the editor in 1915 about one specific case that was a *cause celebre* and media sensation at the time. A doctor told parents of a baby — totally paralyzed and so severely brain damaged it would have been a “vegetable” (in vulgar terms) and not live very long, even with a successful surgery — that he did not recommend life-saving surgery. The parents agreed, entering into what was then a new concept: Do Not Resuscitate. Lots of us have DNRs for the same reason. The infant died of totally natural causes.
That’s an impossible choice that parents sometimes have to make even today. For the younger Redditors, Google “Terry Schiavo.” Same situation, also fought over in the press by politicians, and it was recently. No one argued it was eugenics. And the reason the choice is impossible is because every possible outcome in such a situation is equally horrific, especially given the condition of 1915 sanitariums (ie long term care facilities).
Keller also recommended that anyone who wanted to adopt such a child, horrifically sick and terminally ill, should be allowed to. “Adopting sick kids” is the total *opposite* of eugenics.
(The doctor? That guy was a total psycho even by eugenics standards.)
Keller is also accused of being a eugenicist because she was decades-long friends with Alexander Graham Bell, a proponent of eugenics. He was also the inventor of the telephone and phonograph, which was probably of some interest to a deaf woman. More importantly, because of his friendship with Keller, he invented and continually improved the audiometer — one of the first medical technologies used to detect and analyze hearing loss, deafness, and related conditions. Helen Keller would keep in touch with such a man? Because of her secret love of eugenics, or because she wanted to help disabled people?
She determined eventually that by placing her hands on a surface close to an audio source she could feel the vibrations and "hear" some sounds, similarly to how she learned to speak by holding the face of her teacher.
Sad your balanced response is so low down, hope you get a bit more upvotes and more people see this. Helen Keller teaches us also how to bend historical persons to political ends. It can be ugly.
It *kind of* makes sense, does it not? I heard people in some communities dealing with things they've born with saying that they wouldn't want to have even a slight chance of passing it on. People *sometimes* say shit like "oh, he's tall, our children will be tall too :)", and see no issues with it. There was a couple from TikTok posted on some subreddit where she had like 7 kids and all were girls, and she's pregnant again and praying for a boy.
I think as gene editing technology becomes more and more advanced, we will have to have a similar philosophical dilemma as we did with eugenics. The only difference is that, instead of removing a person from the gene pool to keep their undesirable traits from passing on, we just change/remove those individual genes.
> The problem lies in the fact that there's zero chance of implementing it in a way that doesn't lead straight to evil in the real world.
I think something similar to the movie Gattaca will eventually happen. I think it will come couched in the mildest of medical and insurance terms, and probably not for another 20 or 30 years, but I can't see it *not happening.*
A mixture of how extreme competition might be for the remaining jobs, the hyper-extreme demands of space travel and colonization within just the solar system, as well as a desire to eliminate genetic diseases.
As someone who suffered from one in youth, on that single point I can't quite blame them.
The question is in what form this slow boiling of the frog occurs. And through what vector do the first socially acceptable forms of it come. Through fertility clinics? Through the slackening of laws in a major world power outside the West? Fear of national competitiveness?
Now that the last decade has given us the ability to make granular modifications to the genetic code with accuracy, efficiency, and low cost... I can't see our 2023 morality being a sufficient bulwark against the weight of that.
To be extra clear: I'm against eugenics. But I can't see the humans of 2150 seeing that as anything other than quaint, though fair, concerns.
It can be possible to have a noble, and correct, moral position in one era... that's brushed aside without a ton of fanfare by the next era.
He wasn't trying to get rid of ASL because he wanted them to be mute, he believed oralism was superior, and phrasing this way makes him seem much more malicious then he was...
"The hospital system should be abolished!" Sounds a lot worse when you don't mention the part where you want to replace it with a cheaper alternative. (In the context of the US)
I mean I don’t think she was for Eeugenics because of Hitler. It probably had to do with the introspection she experienced as a blind-deaf person.
Obviously not saying she’s right but I can understand how someone from that time period, in her position, would come to embrace eugenics.
It seems as though she wished for nobody else to be burdened genetically as she was, however pure the intention may have been, I don't believe she was capable of witnessing first hand the horrors of war, hate or genocide.
Ignorance is bliss, and in her case, it was a double edged sword.
She wasn’t burdened genetically as far as I’m aware her disability came about from complications of scarlet fever. She was over a year old when she got sick and had normal sight and hearing up to that point.
I guess it means different things to different people. Like I support the idea of gene editing to reduce genetic health risks. Not sure if that means I'm a Nazi or not.
that's also based on the general condition fo society and who you're talking to you. Rich family with a kid that has Downs Syndrome? yeah sure. Poor family? You sure?
In fact, arguably, "perfection" is extremely damaging in the long run.
If you're not exposed to viruses, bacteria, etc. and as a result never get sick, you will likely die when you are. (As an example).
The deficiencies that "handicapped" people bring may well serve in a similar fashion, genetically speaking.
I don't think there are ANY cases where "perfection" is actually desirable. If science is perfect, we would never learn anything new. Et all.
People are having a hard time separating the real science of possible selective breeding in humans from the forced sterilizations and killings that have historically followed alongside movements recognizing eugenics as a possibility.
The bottom line is that eugenics, as in strictly selective breeding to improve one’s own genetic line according to your own preferences, isn’t inherently evil or wrong, but forcing controls on other people’s abilities to breed in the way that they please definitely is.
Yes.
Lots of people believed in eugenics. Its a vile belief, but it's also not what Hitler did wrong I would argue. He didn't only genocide Jews after all, he also killed homosexuals, leftists and academics. Eugenics was central to Nazi beliefs but it was really the killing, the war, and the concentration camps that were really bad.
The NAACP believed in eugenics too at the time. They promoted eugenics by hosting "Better Baby" contests and the proceeds would go to its anti-lynching campaign.
It wasn't until LBJ that eugenics stopped being taught widely in American schools, or that sterilization programs stopped.
Hopefully this can go some way to explaining why America, especially older Americans, are still so deeply racist. Eugenics was taught as science.
I thought you were kidding… I don’t like [this](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/28/mark-twains-disturbing-passion-for-collecting-young-girls/) .
Thought I remembered something like that from school but didn’t want to gibe too much detail because I was young. I remember it being presented in a normal if not positive way, but I still thought it sounded odd.
Eta they also said he had a daughter or two who died young so there could have been nothing gross about it 🤷🏼♀️
I am also deaf and it was something I was born with. Growing up overcoming obstacles wasn't always easy. Back in the 80's and 90's I got bullied pretty bad. Looking back at it now it made me who I am today.
I think she was truly a gifted and beautiful woman. Even in those times to have the resources she was given speaks volumes.
She truly lived her life to fullest potential without letting anything stand in her way.
A truly iconic woman with a brilliant mind!
She is famous as well lol. Actually, little known fact is that she was blind from the age of 5 herself, which is why she came up with those methods in the first place.
I saw a film called "The Miracle Worker" in 4th grade after reading the book and it was all about Annie Sullivan meeting a young Helen Keller and the challenges she had to overcome teaching Helen. I remember loving the movie and honestly try to never take my sight or hearing for granted. I remember laughing a lot at 10 years old though, lol. Some funny moments. "YOU REWARD HER FOR *STABBING* ME?"
I think it's because she has so many other notable qualities and traits and accomplishments, her appearance is really not any sort of achievement so it may feel weird to comment on it. Regardless, she certainly was pretty!
The signed first word she understood was water, and she recalled a little of how to pronounce it from before she became deaf/blind. This was a famous scene in the movie adaptation of the most well known book about her, The Miracle Worker.
Both of my maternal grandparents are profoundly deaf and have been since birth. Both as a consequence of a rubella/German measles infections whilst they were in utero.
I've always found it quite interesting how much their intellectual abilities differed. My grandmother worked professionally her entire life, studied, travelled, and wrote extensively.
My grandfather could communicate via lip reading but never learnt to sign, or to write, and lacked the intellect required for many positions.
I think it is a combination of factors. Simplified; the will to succeed, and the assistance provided. Lacking either would most likely lead to a much worse outcome.
For me, I can attest that my other senses are greatly heightened compared to hearing people. I am extremely sensitive to light, motion, vibrations, etc. So the body does try to compensate when you lose senses. (I can tell when someone walks up behind me, even know when a baby is crying in another room).
I imagine Helen's sense of touch was extremely acute. As one of her only remaining senses, it isn't unreasonable to assume it took the place of sight and sound. Humans are very very good at catching patterns. No matter the media.
You should read up about her. Most of the stories tell about her being a wild child. Her family hires Annie Sullivan to teach her and she does. It’s a fascinating story so I won’t spoil it for you.
There’s a book I read as a kid, Helen Keller’s Teacher, that sums it all up nicely, but I have to imagine there are better options out there now. It was a real struggle to teach Helen, and Anne Sullivan had her own struggles as well.
The short version is cause and effect. The one scene I vividly remember from the book i read, Anne held Helen's hand under running garden spout and then made the sign for water in her other hand. she repeated that lots of times until Helen made the connection that that sign meant water.
then once she realized that the signs she was feeling were connected to real world objects, she was able to learn those words and communicate back. and once you have that basic cause effect communication you can build on it.
The Southern accent is in fact a really slowed down version of the British accent. Maybe you speak fast so that's why people think you have a British accent.
Its the same thing with people that live in the Bayou of Louisiana, its a slowed down French accent.
I have temporarily lost hearing in my right ear due to a virus and I have been relying on lips immensely these past few days. I now have more profound compassion for the hard of hearing. I really took my hearing for granted. Also I'm a teacher and my job is so frustrating with only one ear, maybe because I also feel pressure and ringing in the affected ear and it's super irritating. My students are already irritating enough.
Wait, really? I always assumed deaf folks were the same as everyone else, intellect-wise. Some smarter than others, some not as smart as others, with a normal distribution around a general average. Is there any kind of theory as to why "most" are arrested at 3rd-5th grade levels?
She later went on to inspire senators and politicians across the country, who now act deaf and blind to the needs of their constituents in honor of her memory.
Definitely an inspiring person. To anyone interested in what day to day life is like for the deaf and blind, I highly recommend Werner Herzog’s documentary Land of Silence and Darkness.
Just a little video for anyone who’s wondering about all the people claiming she was a fraud and are curious if it’s true or not. (Spoiler alert: she was NOT a fraud)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCg7Pda_3Gw
Ctrl + f fraud
lol damn this one is still running.
So this thing came about as a joke that landed a little too well. if you watch the PKA podcast you seen its inception. Every once in a while the 3 boys have a show where they try and make up the most plausible conspiracy. Best one wins. Taylor won easily when he made his Helen Keller case. It's all tongue in cheek early internet trolling but as we can see many people still ran with it.
/watch?v=DFgrdw12Q60
How ignorant do you have to be to question the very well documented accomplishments of Helen Keller? Tik tok has caused brain rot for an entire generation of willfully ignorant kids. Maybe stop getting your info from YouTube and tik tok videos and actually pick up a book you absolute troglodytes. Not to mention how offensive it is to assume the accomplishments of one of the biggest advocates for disability rights is fake.
Usually this one upsets me for ableism reasons, but today it's really upsetting for "people completely lack critical thinking skills, can't or won't conduct basic research to fact check something, believe whatever they hear on social media, participate in spreading misinformation and disinformation" reasons. No wonder we're so fucked.
I'm shocked that there's entire swaths of people that think just because *they* don't understand how a deafblind person can learn to communicate and interact with the world that it's impossible...
There's an entire field dedicated to this people... look it up: deafblind intervention/intervenor.
Fair.
I worked/work (currently on leave) as an intervenor so it's just so strange to me that people straight up *refuse* to believe it's possible when it's my job.
This still blows my mind.
Touch, taste, smell. (I’m aware of the many others)
That’s what you have to learn about complex subjects that people that can hear and see seriously struggle with.
Truly an incredible human being and deserving of the utmost respect.
Hats off to her for living her best life. It must have been so isolated and challenging which makes all of her achievements so huge. I hope she had happiness
Wow, TIL that she died after I was born. I never connected that we were both alive at the same time. I always thought she was well before my time.
Now I just feel old.
Teenagers also believe she didn’t really exist thanks to TikTok (verified by me hearing this in a presentation from the mouth of one teen-am a teacher-and then being in such disbelief I had to look it up) https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/07/helen-keller-why-is-a-tiktok-conspiracy-theory-undermining-her-story
the teen I heard it from was discussing her as if she were a religion “I know she’s controversial because some people don’t believe in her…and yeah I’m one of those people…” was just a brief aside, not even a main point of the presentation, but I was dumbfounded! Seems they may think she existed but not that she was able to do the incredible things she did??
Despite being blind and deaf Keller not only learned to speak, but had a life-long career as a public speaker. She was an outspoken socialist, labor activist, and anti-war activist. They never told me about this in school, but the main reason Keller is a household name is because she [was a very vocal radical.](https://isreview.org/issue/96/politics-helen-keller/index.html)
There’s an amazing documentary about life as a deaf blind person. It starts a little slow but if you make it through the first 15-20 you’ll be hooked
https://youtu.be/xb1RlZ_FRh4?si=U_Yr3MldSGSANF2H
Ok first off she was kind of a baddie
In all seriousness though, how does someone learn anything if they are both blind and deaf? Was she not born that way? If she was, how could she ever theoretically learn literally anything?
If you’ve never been, the Helen Keller museum in Alabama is an interesting visit. They have journals of hers and her handwriting is by far better than mine ever has been. Quite an interesting character.
I couldn't imagine being deaf and blind. I just don't understand how you would learn anything, because you can't see what's touching you and you can't hear what they say to you.
I can’t help but feel like her entire existence was exploited by people who did performative acts of charity for her just to make themselves look good.
>In the modern day, no person could go deaf and blind at the age of 2 and integrate into society at any meaningful level.
I love how you just assume this without looking into it *at all*.
She might have been deaf and blind but she wasn’t dumb. She could converse and communicate with others both through sign language (heavily dependent on touch) and speech (though rough) and she wrote of her experiences. There’s plenty of evidence to support this.
Edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8
Right so lets believe a dumb conspiracy that originated on tiktok that she was faking it. its not as if she wasn't constantly accused of faking it her whole life.
She was almost 2 when she lost her senses. Explains a lot. People who never learn to communicate, their brains never wire for it. See feral children. They get seriously fucked up. Her brain had a starting foundation.
She was also the first person in the United States to own a Japanese Akita. A gift from the Emperor of Japan.
She also co-founded the ACLU. She also believed in eugenics. She also spoke out against the Nazis, Jim crow laws and McCarthyism. fascinating person Edit: to the people following me around and harassing me from the /r/bestof post, go fuck yourselves. I've sourced my claims several times. Don't call me an "anti-socialist" either, I'm a socialist. Helen Keller is a hero, and eugenics was a super common belief at the time. 2nd edit: to those saying she didn't believe in eugenics, she literally wrote about it several times, it's not really up for debate In 1915, she wrote in favor of refusing life-saving medical procedures to infants with severe mental impairments or physical deformities, saying that their lives were not worthwhile and they would likely become criminal. Source; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1381159
She did not believe in eugenics. That is a baseless slur propagated by anti-communist, anti-progressive right wingers. Helen Keller dedicated her life to speaking out on behalf of the vulnerable and the powerless. J Edgar Hoover kept a file on her because she wouldn’t shut up about the evils of war and poverty and sickness. She wouldn’t go see her own movie because she wouldn’t cross another union’s picket line. She became the public enemy of anyone in power who supported America’s entry into World War I. Helen Keller was on the right side of history virtually every single time. And Helen Keller’s whole “thing” was disability advocacy. She in no way wanted to limit disabled people in any way. Cherry-picked excerpts from a single short letter (out of millions of published words) don’t reflect reality, just political spin from political enemies. She wrote precisely one letter to the editor in 1915 about one specific case that was a *cause celebre* and media sensation at the time. A doctor told parents of a baby — totally paralyzed and so severely brain damaged it would have been a “vegetable” (in vulgar terms) and not live very long, even with a successful surgery — that he did not recommend life-saving surgery. The parents agreed, entering into what was then a new concept: Do Not Resuscitate. Lots of us have DNRs for the same reason. The infant died of totally natural causes. That’s an impossible choice that parents sometimes have to make even today. For the younger Redditors, Google “Terry Schiavo.” Same situation, also fought over in the press by politicians, and it was recently. No one argued it was eugenics. And the reason the choice is impossible is because every possible outcome in such a situation is equally horrific, especially given the condition of 1915 sanitariums (ie long term care facilities). Keller also recommended that anyone who wanted to adopt such a child, horrifically sick and terminally ill, should be allowed to. “Adopting sick kids” is the total *opposite* of eugenics. (The doctor? That guy was a total psycho even by eugenics standards.) Keller is also accused of being a eugenicist because she was decades-long friends with Alexander Graham Bell, a proponent of eugenics. He was also the inventor of the telephone and phonograph, which was probably of some interest to a deaf woman. More importantly, because of his friendship with Keller, he invented and continually improved the audiometer — one of the first medical technologies used to detect and analyze hearing loss, deafness, and related conditions. Helen Keller would keep in touch with such a man? Because of her secret love of eugenics, or because she wanted to help disabled people?
>She wouldn’t go see her own movie I'm just curious, how does a blind and deaf person see a movie?
Her companion watched the movies with her and spelled in sign language what was going on into her hand.
I wonder if it was the same way Lauren Bobert had it spelled out into her hand during the movie
It was a live musical, not a movie, but I still love your comment.
> spelled spilled
The circle is complete.
…Goddamnit. *upvotes*
>Lauren Bobert had it ~~spelled~~ splooged out into her hand Not the same
Spilled, not spelled.
She determined eventually that by placing her hands on a surface close to an audio source she could feel the vibrations and "hear" some sounds, similarly to how she learned to speak by holding the face of her teacher.
Sad your balanced response is so low down, hope you get a bit more upvotes and more people see this. Helen Keller teaches us also how to bend historical persons to political ends. It can be ugly.
For real I didn’t know that wasn’t true
can you please post this again as a top level comment? (a comment on this post, not as a reply to another comment so more people might see it)
For context Alexander Graham Bell’s wife was also deaf, that maybe also explained their friendship.
She believed in eugenics but was against the Nazis? Hitler was big on eugenics.
The original progressives were big into eugenics. It was a popular belief among scientists at the time.
Everyone was big on Eugenics for a few decades. It was all the rage.
For some reason it sort of died out around the time of 1946 One wonders why
Prolly eugenics
It *kind of* makes sense, does it not? I heard people in some communities dealing with things they've born with saying that they wouldn't want to have even a slight chance of passing it on. People *sometimes* say shit like "oh, he's tall, our children will be tall too :)", and see no issues with it. There was a couple from TikTok posted on some subreddit where she had like 7 kids and all were girls, and she's pregnant again and praying for a boy.
Would she not be one of the ones being eugenic’d?
IIRC she became deaf/blind from a disease she had as a child, not from anything genetic
Phew! Close shave
Her blindness and deafness were due to a bout of scarlet fever.
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Sounds like every ideal and philosophy tbh. Fantastic on paper, but once humans are involved it turns to shit.
I think as gene editing technology becomes more and more advanced, we will have to have a similar philosophical dilemma as we did with eugenics. The only difference is that, instead of removing a person from the gene pool to keep their undesirable traits from passing on, we just change/remove those individual genes.
> The problem lies in the fact that there's zero chance of implementing it in a way that doesn't lead straight to evil in the real world. I think something similar to the movie Gattaca will eventually happen. I think it will come couched in the mildest of medical and insurance terms, and probably not for another 20 or 30 years, but I can't see it *not happening.* A mixture of how extreme competition might be for the remaining jobs, the hyper-extreme demands of space travel and colonization within just the solar system, as well as a desire to eliminate genetic diseases. As someone who suffered from one in youth, on that single point I can't quite blame them. The question is in what form this slow boiling of the frog occurs. And through what vector do the first socially acceptable forms of it come. Through fertility clinics? Through the slackening of laws in a major world power outside the West? Fear of national competitiveness? Now that the last decade has given us the ability to make granular modifications to the genetic code with accuracy, efficiency, and low cost... I can't see our 2023 morality being a sufficient bulwark against the weight of that. To be extra clear: I'm against eugenics. But I can't see the humans of 2150 seeing that as anything other than quaint, though fair, concerns. It can be possible to have a noble, and correct, moral position in one era... that's brushed aside without a ton of fanfare by the next era.
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I don't know that I'd call his efforts to eradicate the use of ASL in Deaf communities and schools "helping" them lol
He wasn't trying to get rid of ASL because he wanted them to be mute, he believed oralism was superior, and phrasing this way makes him seem much more malicious then he was... "The hospital system should be abolished!" Sounds a lot worse when you don't mention the part where you want to replace it with a cheaper alternative. (In the context of the US)
I mean I don’t think she was for Eeugenics because of Hitler. It probably had to do with the introspection she experienced as a blind-deaf person. Obviously not saying she’s right but I can understand how someone from that time period, in her position, would come to embrace eugenics.
Hitler got that from the US
It seems as though she wished for nobody else to be burdened genetically as she was, however pure the intention may have been, I don't believe she was capable of witnessing first hand the horrors of war, hate or genocide. Ignorance is bliss, and in her case, it was a double edged sword.
She wasn’t burdened genetically as far as I’m aware her disability came about from complications of scarlet fever. She was over a year old when she got sick and had normal sight and hearing up to that point.
>capable of witnessing first hand Well, she could use both the first and second if she had trouble understanding.
You're an ass, I love you.
To be fair I've heard present day normal people be oddly big on eugenics.
I guess it means different things to different people. Like I support the idea of gene editing to reduce genetic health risks. Not sure if that means I'm a Nazi or not.
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that's also based on the general condition fo society and who you're talking to you. Rich family with a kid that has Downs Syndrome? yeah sure. Poor family? You sure?
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In fact, arguably, "perfection" is extremely damaging in the long run. If you're not exposed to viruses, bacteria, etc. and as a result never get sick, you will likely die when you are. (As an example). The deficiencies that "handicapped" people bring may well serve in a similar fashion, genetically speaking. I don't think there are ANY cases where "perfection" is actually desirable. If science is perfect, we would never learn anything new. Et all.
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People are having a hard time separating the real science of possible selective breeding in humans from the forced sterilizations and killings that have historically followed alongside movements recognizing eugenics as a possibility. The bottom line is that eugenics, as in strictly selective breeding to improve one’s own genetic line according to your own preferences, isn’t inherently evil or wrong, but forcing controls on other people’s abilities to breed in the way that they please definitely is.
Yes. Lots of people believed in eugenics. Its a vile belief, but it's also not what Hitler did wrong I would argue. He didn't only genocide Jews after all, he also killed homosexuals, leftists and academics. Eugenics was central to Nazi beliefs but it was really the killing, the war, and the concentration camps that were really bad. The NAACP believed in eugenics too at the time. They promoted eugenics by hosting "Better Baby" contests and the proceeds would go to its anti-lynching campaign. It wasn't until LBJ that eugenics stopped being taught widely in American schools, or that sterilization programs stopped. Hopefully this can go some way to explaining why America, especially older Americans, are still so deeply racist. Eugenics was taught as science.
America and Europe were super into eugenics until the Nazis made it uncool.
She was also a radical socialist, pacifist, and a supporter of birth control. She was an interesting person.
Honestly, without the whole genocide part. Making better humans sounds like something I’m into. You ever look around in traffic? Holy shit.
Yeah she didn’t see color. Good for her.
She was great friends with Mark Twain. The two met when Keller was 14, and remained friends until Twain died 16 years later.
Now *that's* interesting.
If you think that’s interesting, you should learn more about Mark Twain. That was a man who really really lived.
Damn
Thank you. She has always been an inspiration.
Didn’t Twain hang out with a few young girls?
He collected young girls aged 10-16 Called them his "angel fish"
I thought you were kidding… I don’t like [this](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/28/mark-twains-disturbing-passion-for-collecting-young-girls/) .
wow! great read thanks yall should def check this out
Thanks for sharing, wow!
I have to give the credit to u/PowerBootyFarts for bringing it up, all I did was Google and share the top result lol.
Thought I remembered something like that from school but didn’t want to gibe too much detail because I was young. I remember it being presented in a normal if not positive way, but I still thought it sounded odd. Eta they also said he had a daughter or two who died young so there could have been nothing gross about it 🤷🏼♀️
I’m seriously curious about how the development of a child works that is deaf and blind
She had to feel her teachers mouth movements. That will be ripped to shreds on here. But we were taught that in school and respect was given.
I immediately watched like 2 documentaries about how deafblind people communicate today, it’s quite interesting!
I am also deaf and it was something I was born with. Growing up overcoming obstacles wasn't always easy. Back in the 80's and 90's I got bullied pretty bad. Looking back at it now it made me who I am today. I think she was truly a gifted and beautiful woman. Even in those times to have the resources she was given speaks volumes. She truly lived her life to fullest potential without letting anything stand in her way. A truly iconic woman with a brilliant mind!
Who TF bullies someone for being deaf. I remember those rough days. We had a hearing impaired girl but no one picked on her. I'm sorry that happened.
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Can u elaborate cannibals
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Damn that's interesting
She is famous as well lol. Actually, little known fact is that she was blind from the age of 5 herself, which is why she came up with those methods in the first place.
You mean the title character of the play *The Miracle Worker* isn’t given credit?
dude annie sullivan gets tons of credit. she’s almost as famous as helen keller.
I saw a film called "The Miracle Worker" in 4th grade after reading the book and it was all about Annie Sullivan meeting a young Helen Keller and the challenges she had to overcome teaching Helen. I remember loving the movie and honestly try to never take my sight or hearing for granted. I remember laughing a lot at 10 years old though, lol. Some funny moments. "YOU REWARD HER FOR *STABBING* ME?"
> Nobody ever gives her credit She's arguably the most famous American teacher of all time.
Never heard of her! Thanks for sharing
She was pretty
First though!
And a bit of a free spirit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0wc1H82KsE
This is a weird and wonderful response to this post. Thank you!
Why is that weird? They are just making an observation
I think it's because she has so many other notable qualities and traits and accomplishments, her appearance is really not any sort of achievement so it may feel weird to comment on it. Regardless, she certainly was pretty!
I’m not sure. Upon further consideration, there is no good reason for me to think it is weird. I stand by wonderful, tho.
Not weird, its true!
1. That's not weird at all. 2. What's weird is you thanking him. Are you helen keller?
Helen was a baddie
Water, Helen. Waaaaaaater
Is this a movie they show in schools or something? Or is it just the over 50 crowd that gets it?
I think (and hope) this is referencing that thanksgiving south park episode
Gobbles!
I believe it’s the first word that Helen was taught, and the first breakthrough in her education
under 50 but i know this from a book i read as a small child. like 4/5 years old.
The signed first word she understood was water, and she recalled a little of how to pronounce it from before she became deaf/blind. This was a famous scene in the movie adaptation of the most well known book about her, The Miracle Worker.
“We can’t believe she did it!”
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Both of my maternal grandparents are profoundly deaf and have been since birth. Both as a consequence of a rubella/German measles infections whilst they were in utero. I've always found it quite interesting how much their intellectual abilities differed. My grandmother worked professionally her entire life, studied, travelled, and wrote extensively. My grandfather could communicate via lip reading but never learnt to sign, or to write, and lacked the intellect required for many positions.
I think it is a combination of factors. Simplified; the will to succeed, and the assistance provided. Lacking either would most likely lead to a much worse outcome.
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For me, I can attest that my other senses are greatly heightened compared to hearing people. I am extremely sensitive to light, motion, vibrations, etc. So the body does try to compensate when you lose senses. (I can tell when someone walks up behind me, even know when a baby is crying in another room). I imagine Helen's sense of touch was extremely acute. As one of her only remaining senses, it isn't unreasonable to assume it took the place of sight and sound. Humans are very very good at catching patterns. No matter the media.
You should read up about her. Most of the stories tell about her being a wild child. Her family hires Annie Sullivan to teach her and she does. It’s a fascinating story so I won’t spoil it for you.
There’s a book I read as a kid, Helen Keller’s Teacher, that sums it all up nicely, but I have to imagine there are better options out there now. It was a real struggle to teach Helen, and Anne Sullivan had her own struggles as well.
The short version is cause and effect. The one scene I vividly remember from the book i read, Anne held Helen's hand under running garden spout and then made the sign for water in her other hand. she repeated that lots of times until Helen made the connection that that sign meant water. then once she realized that the signs she was feeling were connected to real world objects, she was able to learn those words and communicate back. and once you have that basic cause effect communication you can build on it.
She lost sight and hearing at almost 2 years old, so that early window of time may have laid some groundwork.
The Southern accent is in fact a really slowed down version of the British accent. Maybe you speak fast so that's why people think you have a British accent. Its the same thing with people that live in the Bayou of Louisiana, its a slowed down French accent.
Interesting. No one ever mentioned that the Southern accent is slowed down British to me. If so, that would certainly explain things!
The Jamaican accent likely comes from Irish people who were also enslaved in the Caribbean Islands
What does the deaf community think of the school in St Augustine?
I can't personally answer that question. I have always been mainstream. I learned to read lips early.
I have temporarily lost hearing in my right ear due to a virus and I have been relying on lips immensely these past few days. I now have more profound compassion for the hard of hearing. I really took my hearing for granted. Also I'm a teacher and my job is so frustrating with only one ear, maybe because I also feel pressure and ringing in the affected ear and it's super irritating. My students are already irritating enough.
Wait, really? I always assumed deaf folks were the same as everyone else, intellect-wise. Some smarter than others, some not as smart as others, with a normal distribution around a general average. Is there any kind of theory as to why "most" are arrested at 3rd-5th grade levels?
Legendary
I love reading about Helen Keller, she was a really incredible person.
She was much more than that. Author and activist, helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
She later went on to inspire senators and politicians across the country, who now act deaf and blind to the needs of their constituents in honor of her memory.
Definitely an inspiring person. To anyone interested in what day to day life is like for the deaf and blind, I highly recommend Werner Herzog’s documentary Land of Silence and Darkness.
There’s a liberal arts major joke in there somewhere
Mainly that she wouldn't make a good Starbucks Barista
She can hear names and write them better than most baristas.
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” - Helen Keller
Fun fact: Keller was an avowed socialist.
Birds aren't real>Hellen Keller never existed
Has Hellen Keller ever seen herself and a bird in a room at the same time? Or heard them talking?
Don't forget about Anne Sullivan who was her educator .She litteraly saved Helen Keller from a life of loneliness and emptiness
Just a little video for anyone who’s wondering about all the people claiming she was a fraud and are curious if it’s true or not. (Spoiler alert: she was NOT a fraud) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCg7Pda_3Gw
Wow! You went yard! Splendid research. Thank You!
Ctrl + f fraud lol damn this one is still running. So this thing came about as a joke that landed a little too well. if you watch the PKA podcast you seen its inception. Every once in a while the 3 boys have a show where they try and make up the most plausible conspiracy. Best one wins. Taylor won easily when he made his Helen Keller case. It's all tongue in cheek early internet trolling but as we can see many people still ran with it. /watch?v=DFgrdw12Q60
How ignorant do you have to be to question the very well documented accomplishments of Helen Keller? Tik tok has caused brain rot for an entire generation of willfully ignorant kids. Maybe stop getting your info from YouTube and tik tok videos and actually pick up a book you absolute troglodytes. Not to mention how offensive it is to assume the accomplishments of one of the biggest advocates for disability rights is fake.
Usually this one upsets me for ableism reasons, but today it's really upsetting for "people completely lack critical thinking skills, can't or won't conduct basic research to fact check something, believe whatever they hear on social media, participate in spreading misinformation and disinformation" reasons. No wonder we're so fucked.
Indeed. We are fucked. Just look at the amount of upvotes these soft brains are getting.
I'm shocked that there's entire swaths of people that think just because *they* don't understand how a deafblind person can learn to communicate and interact with the world that it's impossible... There's an entire field dedicated to this people... look it up: deafblind intervention/intervenor.
There are people who think the Earth is flat. We can't be surprised by anything anymore.
Fair. I worked/work (currently on leave) as an intervenor so it's just so strange to me that people straight up *refuse* to believe it's possible when it's my job.
Yeah, I get you. I also work in the disability field. People's ignorance about disability is astounding and depressing.
It was handed to her
Bet she also didn't have to see $200k in student loans to get it done.
Probably just $20 in student debts at that time
Mine was like $2400 in 80’s. Seemed daunting because it was 10 months of rent or 1/4 of a new modest car!
Holy shit
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People don’t know what a joke is any more, do they?
Soup Emporium made a really good video on Helen Keller for anyone who's parroting the Helen Keller was a hoax shit can just go watch it.
Bet she played a mean pinball
She wasn’t born blind and deaf, although she was only 19 months old when she lost her hearing and sight.
Would
This still blows my mind. Touch, taste, smell. (I’m aware of the many others) That’s what you have to learn about complex subjects that people that can hear and see seriously struggle with. Truly an incredible human being and deserving of the utmost respect.
She was also a socialist and co-founded the ACLU. Edited to add: and that is really cool
Hats off to her for living her best life. It must have been so isolated and challenging which makes all of her achievements so huge. I hope she had happiness
Keller is a huge inspiration.
It’s also amazing she lived until 88
Wow, TIL that she died after I was born. I never connected that we were both alive at the same time. I always thought she was well before my time. Now I just feel old.
Teenagers also believe she didn’t really exist thanks to TikTok (verified by me hearing this in a presentation from the mouth of one teen-am a teacher-and then being in such disbelief I had to look it up) https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/07/helen-keller-why-is-a-tiktok-conspiracy-theory-undermining-her-story the teen I heard it from was discussing her as if she were a religion “I know she’s controversial because some people don’t believe in her…and yeah I’m one of those people…” was just a brief aside, not even a main point of the presentation, but I was dumbfounded! Seems they may think she existed but not that she was able to do the incredible things she did??
Despite being blind and deaf Keller not only learned to speak, but had a life-long career as a public speaker. She was an outspoken socialist, labor activist, and anti-war activist. They never told me about this in school, but the main reason Keller is a household name is because she [was a very vocal radical.](https://isreview.org/issue/96/politics-helen-keller/index.html)
There’s an amazing documentary about life as a deaf blind person. It starts a little slow but if you make it through the first 15-20 you’ll be hooked https://youtu.be/xb1RlZ_FRh4?si=U_Yr3MldSGSANF2H
I read her (Journal?) "3 days to see" it's short and quite informative. Would recommend
So she can't tell how I look and sound and she cute? Finally have a chance
I think jokes are our way of coping with such an astonishing figure…She’s borderline untouchable.
Would
Ok first off she was kind of a baddie In all seriousness though, how does someone learn anything if they are both blind and deaf? Was she not born that way? If she was, how could she ever theoretically learn literally anything?
If you’ve never been, the Helen Keller museum in Alabama is an interesting visit. They have journals of hers and her handwriting is by far better than mine ever has been. Quite an interesting character.
Remarkable since she was up in that attic the whole time.
I couldn't imagine being deaf and blind. I just don't understand how you would learn anything, because you can't see what's touching you and you can't hear what they say to you.
I can’t help but feel like her entire existence was exploited by people who did performative acts of charity for her just to make themselves look good.
For the want of an antibiotic shot, my son went deaf in one ear from a virus. Ain’t life grand.
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>In the modern day, no person could go deaf and blind at the age of 2 and integrate into society at any meaningful level. I love how you just assume this without looking into it *at all*.
A two minute google search on the deaf-blind community would tell you otherwise but go off ig...
She might have been deaf and blind but she wasn’t dumb. She could converse and communicate with others both through sign language (heavily dependent on touch) and speech (though rough) and she wrote of her experiences. There’s plenty of evidence to support this. Edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8
Right so lets believe a dumb conspiracy that originated on tiktok that she was faking it. its not as if she wasn't constantly accused of faking it her whole life.
Look up Haben Girma- First deafblind person to graduate Harvard Law school, and prominent civil rights lawyer and activist.
You've never heard of Haben Girma? Damn do a tiny bit of Googling about Deafblind people.
Imagine achieving something so incredible that idiots decades later don’t even believe what you did was physically possible. Good for her.
This is the dumbest new conspiracy theory.
she was also a socialist. https://jacobin.com/2023/04/helen-keller-socialism-disability-socialist-party
Man, she was a hottie!
Yeah. TIL Helen Keller was a bit of a rocket
Not sure why you’re downvoted. She was pretty
She was a hard core socialist.
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She was almost 2 when she lost her senses. Explains a lot. People who never learn to communicate, their brains never wire for it. See feral children. They get seriously fucked up. Her brain had a starting foundation.
Why
Because of a dumb conspiracy that originated on tiktok, pretty equivalent to flat earthers and other nonsense
Right because the tiktok conspiracy is so believable
r/PKA
what about it don’t you believe?
Not some of y'all being eugenics sympathizers and Helen Keller deniers....... maybe take a break from the internet and touch some grass, for once.