I'm not one to buy into conspiracy theories, but someone mentioned Helen Keller on a podcast I listen to, and I began to think how its even possible that she learned to communicate. I also want to say I wish I was not compelled by this because Helen Keller has an extremely inspiring story if were supposed to believe it truly.

Cliffs:
from an extremely wealthy family
supposedly went completely deaf/blind at 19 months
learned to communicate via novel hand movements
In 1887 at 7 years old, learns how to say water with hand movements
was a proponent of radical socialism and feminism, just like her teacher Ann Sullivan
began writing stories and letters and published as young as eleven
went to Harvard's all female branch Radcliffe college and graduated at 24
became a public "speaker" and one of the most famous ones in the world, talks about socialism, pacifism, the suffrage movement, birth control, and optimism

Excerpt from a short story she wrote at age 11, 4 years after learning the word water
So this is what we're supposed to believe, at 19 months she lost the ability to see or hear, at which age if she was a prodigious child she would have been able to speak about 200 words (at 2 years 50 is normal). For the next 5 years she did not acquire language, because how could she? She couldn't hear or see anything, but that is not to say she wasn't looked after by servants/social workers. After this she was taught how to say water via the hand movements by training days at a time and dipping her hands into water then articulating w-a-t-e-r with the hand movements over and over until she got the words correctly. But how can we know she's not like Koko the gorilla just learning tricks? After all feral children have issue acquiring a first language (source: look up the feral child Genie Wilder) and generally act like little monkeys their entire lives. How is a person be socialized when they cannot engage with others in a meaningful way? Imagine if your kid was literally placed in a dark room at 19 months and lived their until 7 years old like Genie Wilder.

So we're supposed to believe that a person that lived in TOTAL DARKNESS for 5 years could acquire a language, speak it well enough to be a gifted author at a very young age, could complete school on track and even graduate from Harvard, and could become a prominent socialist activist all while having to communicate by lettering out words in her hand and having to have everything conveyed to her via these hand movements and later in her life, braille? Meanwhile deafblind people have an incredibly difficult time in reality and have to be cared for their entire life like a person with mental retardation. The only deafblind people that go on to have success are people who develop it after childhood. Keep in mind the language system she used was gesturing using a limited number of hand movements by Ann Sullivans hands, so that words were literally spelled out to her. They placed their hands into each others and had a symbol for each letter, plus a few extra ones for punctuation, etc. And why would she become such a hardcore activist in a world she couldn't even interact in? She lived a comfortable life because of her extreme wealth, yet had so much ambition for things she had little association with? So much ambition for what to her were abstract concepts

Her endorsement of the Communist government of Russia
brb apparently the newspapers come in braille

Conclusion

Helen Keller was either used as a puppet or her deafblindness was exaggerated (i.e. it came on more gradually and not suddenly at 19 months) or both
OP is an idiot for wasting his morning on this

Thoughts?

She was deaf and blind, brah, not retarded.

Hellen Keller was used as a puppet for political gain by her handler/"teacher". Just look at the some of the stuff that is attributed to her. Without sight or hearing it would be impossible to understand higher level concepts because the way you experience the world would be so limited. Take the Hellen Keller pill...

Just look at the studies of feral children. If you haven't learned to speak by 5 or 6 years old you never will and can't be taught anything above a very basic level. Here is a source for thathttps://mg.co.za/article/1997-11-21-...fe-as-a-human/

This child was found at 5 and at 17 still couldn't speak and "jumped around like a monkey" according to the article

I don't think she was retarded either, in fact she was probably the smartest person to ever live if she was able to grasp language at the tail end of adolescence and became one of the most revered and eloquent speakers to ever live.Good post, repped on rc

I think OP is onto something

He's absolutely correct. With how much we know now about how the human brain develops there is no way they could pull the same thing today. Even if she had both her sight and hearing not interacting with people in a meaningful way between 19 months and 5 years old would leave her permanently stunted and unable to ever understand language on the level they said. People don't want to believe it because its a feel good story but it just can't happen. I posted a link earlier in this thread that shows the true story of kids that have no interaction with other people before 5

Helen Keller photographed, age 13

pWally that you?

You're just proving how remarkable a story hers actually is.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Back in the day we had genius deaf, blind and dumbs parading socialism

Today we have autistic teenagers flying around the world yelling at us for driving to work.

Nothing really changes, the commie cockroaches still breed.

Never thought about it, but it certainly doesn't seem far fetched. I would hate to take any credit away from her though if the official story is legit.

Ever since I was a child, I thought her whole story was bs. It just didn't make sense to me and it still doesn't. I think she was partially blind and deaf enough so that she was considered "legally" blind and deaf.

So the only evidence you have is that its difficult for you to fathom?

It's difficult for me to fathom how Michael Jordan could be so great or how OP could be such a *******, but you don't see me calling either one a fraud.

Without sense of sight or sound, you only have taste, touch, and smell. It is impossible to develop a vocabulary with only those 3 senses. Either they're exaggerating her loss of those 2 senses or somebody used her name

Honestly I think the more believable conspiracy theory involves Stevie Wonder not being blind.

Well I've never taught any deaf and blind kids (though I have taught deaf students), but it's pretty clear you don't know what you're talking about here.

Deaf people can still feel vibrations. And I suppose that with enough exposure to vibrations (alongside the knowledge that the vibrations are coming from a person's mouth/throat/lungs), the person could mimic the vibrations enough to speak themselves.

Look up Pavlov and his dogs. If people can condition dogs to learn through positive reinforcement, certainly we can teach an intelligent (albeit deaf/blind) student to use her vocal chords.

Same thing with Stephen Hawking.

You are different to the regular miscer. Possible Tier 1 Intelligence detected.

Even if you could conjure up sound, it'll just be nonsense. I never claimed that she couldn't speak, I claimed she couldn't possibly have a vocabulary. Good luck trying to decipher the vibrations of someone's voice and even then, trying to understand what the nonsense even means. She can't possibly have a vocabulary and therefore, can't have possibly done what many people are claiming. Again, the only way to do so is if they exaggerated her conditions or somebody stole her name in writing the books.

Good thought.

They don’t really push Helen Keller on us like they used to

ShE wAS reTARded BuTSMaRT

My first skeptic thought it maybe line how we have “legally blind” but can still vaguely make something out, not pitch black. Or maybe some sensors still picking up dull info.

No way to prove to what degree she was as such.

Definately some sort of circus going on over there going by standards of magic we know today.

Good thought lol

yeah it was probably propaganda lie IRAQ having WMDs

People have egos and of course her teacher wants to be able to claim they "discovered" a genius so they get their props.


Story is very similar to koko the talking gorilla. The gorilla could sign a lot of things but her handler inserts her own thoughts and stuff into it and now she has the gorilla telling its life story and how its parents were attacked by poachers and all this chit, which a giant leap of faith.

I suspect same thing going on here. Probably learned some braille eventually but her handlers are now inserting chit into it and now shes writing short stories about how the uniforms are textured on some soldiers and all this chit which is over the top.

Again, with conditioning/reinforcement, every time she made a sound that was correct, she would be rewarded. This eventually leads to growth. I'm not going to type out full chapters from Learning Theories and Psychology courses on BB.com, but this is not unthinkable stuff for people who understand learning theories.

Reinforcement is not going to teach her the vocabulary in her books. How about you read the books she wrote? You're reaching hard and trying to sound like you understand by throwing random books about phychology. How about reading a mathematical deduction book because you clearly lack deduction.

You may want to try a general studies considering you misspelled psychology.

Also, this is not a math problem. It's a learning problem. One of us is qualified in that area and the other is not.

Deduce that.

Don’t forget the part where you’re dumber than the average person so anything you’re “good” at youre still autistic so it’s to be taken with a grain of salt anything that you say

A children school teacher who used to be a security guard? Lmao at calling yourself qualified. You're reaching hard about her capabilities and you know it. Read her book and explain to me how it's possible she has that extensive of a vocabulary without ever hearing those words and seeing them written

Shush girl, shut your lips do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips














From the movie I vaguely remembered seeing her teacher was an authoritarian monster that lived with her 24/7, she got thought all those things by force. Also nobody is fully blind, most blind people can see figures

There's zero chance someone deaf and blind learned to vocalize and communicate in the way that you and I do.



Society is so gullible.

You listen to pka?