Helen Keller: Bullshit Artist

She allegedly:
• Spoke
• Mastered language
• Wrote books
• Gave speeches
• Flew a plane
All while being blind and deaf. This is when I stop clapping and start side-eyeing. Because overcoming adversity? Incredible. Overcoming aerodynamics? Be fuckin' for real. The “she flew a plane” claim is where the story fully leaves our atmosphere.

Flying a plane isn’t motivational. It’s mechanical. You don’t just vibe your way through controlled airspace. You cannot pilot an aircraft without sight or hearing. That’s not ableism. That’s physics. Claiming she piloted a plane is how horses end up with wings and a horn. Ok sure, she was there. Her hands touched something. Someone else was responsible for reality... And the plane isn’t the only place this legend gets turbulence.

The “mastered language” claim- Language relies on auditory or visual symbols. She accessed structured tactile systems interpreted by others. That’s extraordinary. But that’s not the same as independently mastering spoken or written language. Words have definitions.

Then the books; the speeches. If she authored polished manuscripts and delivered public addresses, there were translators, editors, and intermediaries shaping every word. That’s collaboration. Not solo genius.

And here’s the part that annoys me most: the truth was already impressive. A deafblind woman learning to communicate through touch alone? That’s historic. But we couldn’t just let it be remarkable. We had to strap her into a cockpit and act like she went full Top Gun. We don’t need myth inflation to respect someone. If a legend collapses the second you ask logistical questions, it wasn’t a legend. It was marketing.

PS:

I’m not saying she lied. I’m saying how could we possibly know for sure?

When someone can’t see or hear, how do we measure what they truly understand?
How do we separate comprehension from interpretation?
If every idea has to pass through someone else’s hands to reach the world, how do we know whose idea it was?

Maybe she understood more than we can imagine.
Maybe she understood less than we’re comfortable admitting.
Maybe she was brilliant.
Maybe she was exploited.

If she required translators for everything- books, speeches, public appearances- how do we know the ideas were entirely hers? How do we know where her voice ended and someone else’s began?

Maybe she sat in that cockpit and thought she was in a car. Maybe she didn’t know at all. Maybe she trusted what she was told…
Or maybe she knew exactly what was happening.

That’s the point. We don’t actually know...

And certainty, decades later, feels suspiciously clean.