• Vespair@lemmy.zipEnglish
    20·
    3 days ago

    I really need people to know that Helen Keller did fly a plane and yes, this fact alone is the crux of a lot of weird Keller-denialism. It’s ironic that the woman in the post is suggesting the man mentioning Keller is ignorant for confusing her with Earhart, because he wasn’t. He is ignorant for thinking the Keller story is unbelievable, however.

    https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-helen-keller-fly-a-plane (egregious ad deployment on that site, fair warning)

    • chewypoops@lemmy.world
      19·
      3 days ago

      I’m getting whiplash here.

      First I’m told there’s a guy who didn’t know the difference between Helen Keller and Emilia Earhart.

      Then I’m told that Helen Keller really did fly a plane, and that the guy wasn’t misspeaking.

      And now I have to grapple with the fact that the guy wasn’t stupid, but rather a conspiracy theorist, and that “Helen Keller conspiracy theorists” are a real thing.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      15·
      3 days ago

      The thing about the “there’s no way she flew that plane” thing is so annoying is that it’s not even that bold of a claim. They flew her up, she flew for a bit with someone there to take control if something bad happened, then they landed.

      • Vespair@lemmy.zipEnglish
        21·
        3 days ago

        Literally. I don’t mean this to diminish Helen Keller, but the sort of “flying” she did was the same as when they let a kid into the cockpit.

        Given her conditions, this is still absolutely an accomplishment and worth applauding. But to suggest that there is anything remotely unbelievable about it would require a fundamental misunderstanding of the reality of the situation

    • lama@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 days ago

      If the guy didn’t know who Emelia Earhart was, I doubt he knew of this conspiracy

      • Vespair@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        That’s not how misinformation works. It preys upon the ignorant and fills them with lies before they can be filled with truths. All it takes is mild interest in one tiny slice of the right-wing nutjob conspiracy pie to be immediately pulled down the rabbit hole via algorithms on youtube, tiktok, even reddit.

    • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      106·
      5 days ago

      This is somewhat similar to my raw attraction to toxic, dangerous women. I once had a woman casually say mid-blowjob, “I could totally bite your cock off right now.” I giggled like Ralph Wiggum and then we had mind blowing sex.

        • hansolo@lemmy.today
          12·
          5 days ago

          It could be a group project.

          I also had a toxic partner and amazing sex stint. We called ourselves Sid and Nancy as a joke, but also because it was definitely heading towards both of us in a filthy hotel room (again), drunk and high (again), and someone accidentally dies (first time!). We both nicknamed each other the fucking safe word for society, and still missed the signs.

          She went on to write a bunch of songs about it. I married a sort-of friend of the ex who is non-toxic, but also amazing with the sex. And who every time she sees a certain type of woman with trashy makeup on, says “oh, she looks like (name of ex)” as a rib to me.

          Yeah. Good times.

      • TipRing@lemmy.worldEnglish
        56·
        5 days ago

        I had a friend like you once, if he was into a woman there was guaranteed something dreadfully wrong with her. Like this was an actual conversation:

        Friend (excited): I just started seeing her, she’s amazing! The best thing that’s ever happened to me!

        Me: Dude, the last two girlfriends you said that about ended up in jail.

        Friend: No it’s different this time, she’s cool! She’s a gamer, we like the same music, she’s super chill.

        Me: Ok dude, I’m happy for you.

        Two weeks later

        Me: Dude, you ok? You look pretty down.

        Friend: My girlfriend likes to get into throw down drunken brawls with strangers every weekend.

        But this friend was also a weirdness magnet in general.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
        12·
        4 days ago

        It’s through the grace of seeking Dommes that I freed myself from my self destructive instinct towards dangerous and toxic women lol. Thankfully these days I’m married to a dangerous but completely nontoxic woman, because I really can’t handle the “picking fights out of boredom” type behavior

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        23·
        5 days ago

        I need a legit survey of women who haven’t thought about this at least once.

        I’m convinced it’s half the appeal of oral sex. “I could be your last with a chomp and a twist, but you’re too horny to care”.

    • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
      33·
      5 days ago

      Asking what the Spanish word for tortilla is a valid question.

      If you ordered a ‘tortilla’ in Spain, you would get an omelette, not a flatbread.

      This comment section is like the bellcurve meme.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
        9·
        3 days ago

        Yeah, false friends (loan words that don’t mean what they mean in the original language) are super common.

        Edit: The definition I gave is wrong, or rather too narrow. Wikipedia says this:

        In linguistics, a false friend is a word in a different language that looks or sounds similar to a word in a given language, but differs significantly in meaning.

          • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
            2·
            3 days ago

            Mixing those up would certainly be embarassing, though :D

            Example from German: “sensible” is not “sensibel”

            also “handy” and “Handy”

    • bumblefumble@feddit.dk
      21·
      5 days ago

      To be fair to the last comment: The Pink Panther could be either a leopard or a jaguar, it isn’t clear which one.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        28·
        5 days ago

        I (male) have a twin sister.

        I have been asked on more than one occasion if we are identical.

        I have also been asked by someone if we are the same age.

      • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        3·
        3 days ago

        I am wrong in thinking that panther is just another name for the family of animals also called cougars, mountain lions, and pumas? Is this just an US thing?

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
          4·
          3 days ago

          Apparently that’s the north American usage of the word, TIL

          The cougar holds the Guinness record for the animal with the greatest number of names, with over 40 in English alone.

          Y’all need to calm down

  • CalypsoGirl@lemmy.today
    11·
    4 days ago

    Reminds me of the sexy guy I met at the hotel pool the day before my breast cancer surgery and his only hesitancy was “Is it contagious?”

            • soyslurper2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              6·
              4 days ago

              I don’t get what’s wrong… Your past posts also use improper grammar. Are you just stuck up on the slang of your generation?

              • LazyOldPervert@lemmus.orgEnglish
                3·
                4 days ago

                It’s weak and confirmist.

                Never before in the history of generational slang has there been a consensus to self censor and there’s not even a good reason for it.

                It’s as if your generation decided to do it because you could escape online moderation on other platforms by willingly choosing to censor yourself before someone else has the chance to which is… inherently pathetic.

                • chewypoops@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  3 days ago

                  It’s not self-censorship, it phonetic spelling.

                  People say stuff like ahh, shii, biatch, muggafugga in real life, and it’s still widely considered to be profane in context.

                  You just don’t like Black culture, and look down on Black people for their dialects.

                  Demanding dictionary spelling is about as language-conformist as you can get; you’re not even good at the mental gymnastics you’re trying to do.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    13·
    4 days ago

    In the current typhoon of men behaving badly in the US and the ongoing response and safety movements often advocating romantic abstinence, sometimes the observation is made that not every woman — even those pledged to the movement — is on the same page.

    And then there’s the abstinence-until-marriage doctrine of white Christian nationalists, in which young women pledge to preserve their virginity until their one-and-only trad-minded husband puts a ring on it. (Young men might take a similar pledge, but they’re not held to it and in fact are pressured to get some early experience. Double standards and inconsistent value systems and all that.) Yet, a conspicuous fraction of these (sometimes underage) young women overestimate their willpower, frequently contributing to the disproportionate rate of teen pregnancy in school districts that have committed to abstinence-only sex-ed.

    Then there’s the women’s magazine I remember reading during the COVID-19 lockdown, that asked readers to write in their stories when they needed the d so badly they risked infection by a stranger to get it. There were a lot of confessional replies.

    And all this is to say, sometimes a girl has needs.

    • jayands@lemmy.world
      4·
      4 days ago

      Young men might take a similar pledge, but they’re not held to it and in fact are pressured to get some early experience.

      Y’know, I didn’t really think about it during the American Pie era, but I’m just gonna say it: if the boys are supposed to be getting experience, and the girls are supposed to not be, who are the boys having sex with?

  • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
    26·
    4 days ago

    Knew a lady that had four sons with her first husband. Wonderful woman in every way, the boys took after dad. Tall and handsome, dumber than chicken shit and always drink the bottle empty. Nice guys, but I swear they quit breathing while they are trying their shoes. Met someone who knew her in school, she was only sorting for looks and fun. Paying for that now.

  • Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    59·
    5 days ago

    I was shaking my head at the Helen Keller - Amelia Earhart confusion until I double checked something.

    I was getting Helen Keller confused with Anne Frank…

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        5 days ago

        Why are you assuming stupid people are disabled? Do you not see how this is toxic and ableist logic?

        • Dreamcatcher@lemmy.zip
          16·
          4 days ago

          I’m not. I’m just saying that a lot of “invisibly” disabled people with (often undiagnosed) learning disabilities etc. are called stupid all the time, and reading something like that would really hurt them.

          This is an anecdote, I understand that I’m “arguing” here from the heart and I’m not looking to win any legitimate debate, which would be impossible since I unexpectedly got dogpiled this hard while I was asleep before I had a chance to say this, but anyway:

          I watched this small streamer for some time, and even became her moderator. She would just not understand a lot of things, at all, and she was completely unaware how some things could offend other people, until I explained them to her and she felt really bad for saying them while not knowing the real meaning. She cultivated this audience of reactionary people, because they thought she was one of them because she accidentally said a whole bunch of edgy things. But let me emphasize this: she never wanted to hurt anyone, she always felt bad for saying hurtful things on accident and always deeply apologized when she realized she was being hurtful.

          Eventually, I had to quit, because the audience was too much for me. She was a great person, but I didn’t feel welcome due to her viewers and eventually stopped watching her. She felt really bad that I didn’t feel welcome, but there was really nothing that could be done without me banning like a third of her community. We stayed as friends for some time, and she opened up how sad she was about people calling her stupid all the time “because she wouldn’t understand some things” (in reality she had issues understanding basic things all the time).

          When I saw that comment, I thought of her, already really upset by people calling her stupid, reading that and being like “stupid people are gross? and everyone calls me stupid… does this mean… :(”.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
        38·
        5 days ago

        Intellect is absolutely a worthwhile trait in a breeding partner. It should be sexy to be smart.

        Also there’s a difference between being handicapped and being stupid. Stupid is a choice. More of a choice than even being obese.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
            5·
            4 days ago

            Sure. But there’s a biological component to sexual attraction. Hence the more important part of what I said, intellect is supposed to be sexy.

            Instead, anti-intellectualism is. Head-in-the-sand, willful ignorance and learned helplessness. Probably should be the biggest turn-offs, but here we are.

          • black0ut@pawb.social
            11·
            5 days ago

            You can be stupid and educated, or vice versa. Education isn’t the same as stupidity. Some people went to harvard and are stupider than a lot of people I know who dropped out of uni.

        • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
          8·
          5 days ago

          And having all body parts is also a worthwhile trait in a partner. But that doesn’t mean you get a license to call them gross when they don’t.

          Stupid is most definitely not a just choice.

      • chunes@lemmy.world
        7·
        4 days ago

        No one cares even a single bit about disabled folks. Even so-called leftists. Honestly, especially them, it feels like so often to me.

        • Dreamcatcher@lemmy.zip
          11·
          4 days ago

          That or they overcorrect.

          On a pretty popular leftist Lemmy instance (Hexbear), you need to provide a trigger warning for “an ableist slur” if you’re posting a screenshot or quoting something that says the word “stupid”. Pretty sure you’re not allowed to say it in any other context (even for example calling the EU Kids Act “stupid”) or you’ll get banned for “ableism”.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    52·
    5 days ago

    There actually was a stunt where they let Helen Keller ‘fly’ a plane (hold the stick while they were already in the air with the pilots monitoring).

    The conspiracy that she wasn’t actually blind or deaf is frustratingly common among people under 30, who I assume have all picked it up from TikTok.

      • Dolphinfucker420@sh.itjust.works
        75·
        5 days ago

        I’ve heard this claim before but never seen good evidence for it. I consider the possibility that it could be libel meant to discredit her ardent support for socialism, feminism, disability rights, and equal rights for people of all races.

        Here is an excerpt on Helen Keller from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

        Excerpt

        Teachers have held up Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl who overcame her physical handicaps, as an inspiration to generations of schoolchildren. Every fifth grader knows the scene in which Anne Sullivan spells water into young Helen’s hand at the pump. At least a dozen movies and filmstrips have been made on Keller’s life. Each yields its version of the same cliché. A McGraw-Hill educational film concludes: “The gift of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan to the world is to constantly remind us of the wonder of the world around us and how much we owe those who taught us what it means, for there is no person that is unworthy or incapable of being helped, and the greatest service any person can make us is to help another reach true potential.”

        To draw such a bland maxim from the life of Helen Keller, historians and filmmakers have disregarded her actual biography and left out the lessons she specifically asked us to learn from it. Keller, who struggled so valiantly to learn to speak, has been made mute by history. The result is that we really don’t know much about her. Over the past twenty years, I have asked hundreds of college students who Helen Keller was and what she did. All know that she was a blind and deaf girl. Most remember that she was befriended by a teacher, Anne Sullivan, and learned to read and write and even to speak. Some can recall rather minute details of Keller’s early life: that she lived in Alabama, that she was unruly and without manners before Sullivan came along, and so forth. A few know that Keller graduated from college. But about what happened next, about the whole of her adult life, they are ignorant. A few students venture that Keller became a “public figure” or a “humanitarian,” perhaps on behalf of the blind or deaf. “She wrote, didn’t she?” or “she spoke”—conjectures without content. Keller, who was born in 1880, graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 and died in 1968. To ignore the 64 years of her adult life or to encapsulate them with the single word humanitarian is to lie by omission.

        The truth is that Helen Keller was a radical socialist. She joined the Socialist Party of Massachusetts in 1909. She had become a social radical even before she graduated from Radcliffe, and not, she emphasized, because of any teachings available there. After the Russian Revolution, she sang the praises of the new communist nation: “In the East a new star is risen! With pain and anguish the old order has given birth to the new, and behold in the East a man-child is born! Onward, comrades, all together! Onward to the campfires of Russia! Onward to the coming dawn!”

        Keller hung a red flag over the desk in her study. Gradually she moved to the left of the Socialist Party and became a Wobbly, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the syndicalist union persecuted by Woodrow Wilson.Keller’s commitment to socialism stemmed from her experience as a disabled person and from her sympathy for others with handicaps. She began by working to simplify the alphabet for the blind, but soon came to realize that to deal solely with blindness was to treat symptom, not cause. Through research she learned that blindness was not distributed randomly throughout the population but was concentrated in the lower class. Men who were poor might be blinded in industrial accidents or by inadequate medical care; poor women who became prostitutes faced the additional danger of syphilitic blindness. Thus Keller learned how the social class system controls people’s opportunities in life, sometimes determining even whether they can see. Keller’s research was not just book learning: “I have visited sweatshops, factories, crowded slums. If I could not see it, I could smell it.”

        At the time Keller became a socialist, she was one of the most famous women on the planet. She soon became the most notorious. Her conversion to socialism caused a new storm of publicity—this time outraged. Newspapers that had extolled her courage and intelligence now emphasized her handicap. Columnists charged that she had no independent sensory input and was in thrall to those who fed her information. Typical was the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, who wrote that Keller’s “mistakes spring out of the manifest limitations of her development.”

        Keller recalled having met this editor: “At that time the compliments he paid me were so generous that I blush to remember them. But now that I have come out for socialism he reminds me and the public that I am blind and deaf and especially liable to error. I must have shrunk in intelligence during the years since I met him.” She went on, “Oh, ridiculous Brooklyn Eagle! Socially blind and deaf, it defends an intolerable system, a system that is the cause of much of the physical blindness and deafness which we are trying to prevent.”

        Keller, who devoted much of her later life to raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind, never wavered in her belief that our society needed radical change. Having herself fought so hard to speak, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union to fight for the free speech of others. She sent $100 to the NAACP with a letter of support that appeared in its magazine The Crisis— a radical act for a white person from Alabama in the 1920s. She supported Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist candidate, in each of his campaigns for the presidency. She composed essays on the women’s movement, on politics, on economics. Near the end of her life, she wrote to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, leader of the American Communist Party, who was then languishing in jail, a victim of the McCarthy era: “Loving birthday greetings, dear Elizabeth Flynn! May the sense of serving mankind bring strength and peace into your brave heart!”’

        For a list of her writings see the archive

        • FrChazzz@lemmus.orgEnglish
          46·
          5 days ago

          When I think of Helen Keller, I immediately think of the placard that sits on the wall next to her tomb in the National Cathedral. It’s brass and the braille section is so polished from all the fingers that have moved across it to read her name. It’s quite beautiful.

          Edited to include a picture and also to note, here, that she is interred alongside her two lifelong companions.

        • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
          18·
          5 days ago

          An upvote alone didn’t feel like enough, so just commenting to add that I appreciate the excerpt and the link. I knew about her political and social views previously, but I don’t think I’d ever seen anything she’d written. This was a great reminder and very informative.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          5 days ago

          Incredible. I should read that book!

          This quote is especially strong:

          Keller, who struggled so valiantly to learn to speak, has been made mute by history.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          2·
          4 days ago

          Thank you! She was a brilliant and tenacious woman who should be more remembered for her might as an intellectual and an activist than for the fact that most able people see her disabilities as insurmountable.

        • decolo@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          4 days ago

          I’ve been educated, I’m leaving my bad preconception up in case it helps someone else 😃

      • AmyAye@nord.pubEnglish
        6·
        5 days ago

        Plot twist, this is because the person who taught her sign language thought it would be funny if they only taught her to flip the bird to everyone.