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Comment by andrewclunn | Hacker News Reader

I think to the many farces regarding "facilitated communication." I mean nobody who is informed still believes that Hellen Keller's story was anything other than a manipulative scam by her supposed "teacher." This "AI ethicist" and attorney will certainly make some money or catch some fame off this one.

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It's very odd that you would group Hellen Keller in with facilitated communication. Keller communicated with many people without Anne Sullivan's help and was the author of many works.

There are even videos of her on YouTube speaking, reading braille, and communicating through hand-spelling.

> I mean nobody who is informed still believes that Hellen Keller's story was anything other than a manipulative scam by her supposed "teacher."

Um......what?

I just did a quick search and all I could find were articles from ~2021 referencening some weird TikTok conspiracy theory that seemed to be akin to the semi-sarcastic "birds aren't real" meme. Are you being serious here?

The "conspiracy" is always an over exaggerated form of the claim, so that it can be "debunked." Hellen Keller was a real person, who was really deaf and blind, but she wasn't actually communicating. She was performing like a trained animal, unaware of what words she was approximating. Those all came from Anne Sullivan, using Keller as a front to promote her ideas.

Here's the real "conspiracy," but what you see when you do a google search is teenagers claiming she never existed, or wasn't really blind because taking down a straw men is all these "fact checkers" are about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UMDG_qH_RU

Are you kidding me? This is what qualifies as being "informed" to you? The rantings of some random podcast host who did a weekend of "research" on a topic he obviously knows nothing about? I watched that whole video and it was one of the most vapid, substance-free, piles of bullshit I've ever heard.

I seriously question the quality of your judgement and your capacity for critical thought if that video is what is inspired your original comment.

Did you want an exhaustive breakdown of the evidence compiled for you? You stated what you thought the "conspiracy" was, I showed that it wasn't at all what people who doubt the Helen Keller story are claiming. Also you've done nothing to argue against any of the claims being made in the video or the comments section of it, just that it seemed like random people ranting. That's what we're doing. That's what the internet is. Only take your arguments from people through approved venues or a flashy TED talk? Here you go, have fun being a big brained critical thinker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cflCyyEA2I

Is this a troll? There are literally videos of Helen Keller giving speeches, e.g: https://youtu.be/rfr6YO-zLZc

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