Was Helen Keller A Psyop And A Liar? Here's Why The Internet Thinks So

Some of the most high-profile figures in history had ties to the CIA, including the Dalai Lama, former presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, and journalist Gloria Steinem. These prominent individuals all had one thing in common: They were highly charismatic, influential, and had the natural ability to lead and change people's minds. It makes sense, then, why the internet would believe that they're hired plants or "psyops."

Psychological operations, or PSYOP, are "communication experts who persuade allies and enemies in the nation's best interest." Basically, they all play a role in brainwashing people, and before you call me a "conspiracy theorist," the definition I gave you comes straight from the U.S. Army's website. While these psyops are believed to be used on enemies, who's to say that government officials aren't conducting these operations on their own citizens? Wouldn't it be more asinine to say that our government is full of innocent people who don't want to control us or influence our thinking?

Anyway, let's move on. Some people think Helen Keller was probably a psyop – here's why.

Who Was Helen Keller?

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. When she was only 19 months, Keller lost sight and hearing after becoming ill with what doctors diagnosed as "brain fever." Today, experts believe she suffered from scarlet fever or meningitis. Despite her disabilities, Keller was an extraordinary writer, educator, and activist.

With the help of her blind teacher and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan, she learned to communicate through touch-based methods and a unique sign language system. Keller's breakthrough came as she mastered Braille and speech, which opened up a world of knowledge and understanding for her.

Her accomplishments garnered widespread attention, making her an international sensation and inspiring many. Beyond her personal achievements, Keller was described as a passionate advocate for the rights of disabled individuals. She campaigned to improve educational opportunities and foster social acceptance for those facing similar challenges through her numerous writings and speeches. At 29, she became a member of the Socialist Party of America and supported suffrage, birth control, jailed dissidents, and protesting workers. Later, she co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

If you think all of these facts about the American author are too good to be true, you're not alone.

TikTok Questions Helen Keller 

Gen Z has been questioning Keller’s achievements and existence for a couple of years now. Initially, only a handful of individuals on the app voiced their skepticism about Keller's existence, but it led to a surge in people generating various theories about her. 

One influencer, Kate, believes that Keller's purpose was to serve as a figure to inspire school children. "She supposedly flew a plane. I genuinely believe that she was meant to be some inspirational story to prove to kids in school that they can do whatever they put their mind to," Kate says on the LOL Podcast. She continues, "But I am convinced that she was not 100% blind and 100% deaf."

Others think that Keller exaggerated the severity of her disabilities. A video that garnered millions of views and over 100,000 likes read, "i just have to come on here and say that helen keller definitely lied. she wrote a book. she flew a plane. all whilst blind and deaf. how. how did she do that. she didn't. she was faking."

Some have even gone as far as to say that Keller was not real. "When you realize Helen Keller was actually not real and you were lied to in school," shares @sytheian. Then again, there are numerous photos of Keller that pretty much prove that she was indeed a real person.

Nevertheless, let's go over why people are convinced that Keller was a liar.

All the Strangeness Surrounding Helen Keller

Keller's Tutor, Anne Sullivan, Burned Her Writings

You would think an amazing teacher like Anne Sullivan would keep her journals so that future disabled individuals can be taught to read and write like Keller. Instead, she burned her private journals and did not want her letters to be kept after her death. However, the American Foundation for the Blind did retain some of her material, most of which were "letters, prose, and verse."

Helen Keller’s Archive Was Lost During 9/11

Many people find this suspicious, but Keller’s literary archive was lost during the World Trade Center attack. According to Poets&Writers, "The offices of Helen Keller Worldwide, which were located one block from the World Trade Center, were completely destroyed." John Palmer – HKW's president – lost items, including his cherished personal library housing first editions of Keller's books, a valuable collection of correspondence between Keller and the executive director of the London-based Royal National Institute for the Blind, and a treasure trove of photographs of Keller herself, along with all the living presidents who served throughout her life from 1880 to 1968.

Helen Keller Wrote about Eugenics

If you look up things about Keller on Google, you’ll read that she advocated for disabled individuals. So you might be surprised to find that Keller actually believed in eugenics, stating that infanticide was probably the best course of action when it came to “a poor, misshapen, paralyzed, unthinking creature.” How could someone who is both blind and deaf advocate for the murder of disabled people? In her own words, Keller also wrote, “It seems to me that the simplest, wisest thing to do would be to submit cases like that of the malformed idiot baby to a jury of expert physicians…they would act only in cases of true idiocy, where there could be no hope of mental development…decide whether a man is fit to associate with his fellows, whether he is fit to live.”

Keller was friends with telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, a known eugenicist. In 1884, Bell warned that deaf individuals were getting together, socializing, and marrying other deaf individuals. The horrors! He believed the "deaf race" was growing, stating they were a "calamity to the world." “Those who believe as I do, that the production of a defective race of human beings would be a great calamity to the world, will examine carefully the causes that lead to the intermarriage of the deaf with the object of applying a remedy," Bell said.

Yet, when Keller described her friend, she said Bell had "the tenderness and sympathy which endeared [him] to so many hearts." She wrote, "His dominating passion is his love for children. He is never quite so happy as when he has a little deaf child in his arms. His labours in [sic] behalf of the deaf will live on and bless generations of children yet to come." So, it seems like Keller lied about Bell. I wonder what else she lied about?

This also begs the question: Would an actual blind and deaf person advocate for the murder of disabled individuals or befriend someone who hated them? It doesn't sound very likely to me.

Helen Keller Flew a Plane

A newspaper headline once claimed that Helen Keller flew a plane. Through her friend, Polly Thomson, Helen Keller journeyed across Europe, India, Africa, and the Middle East, representing the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind. Throughout their travels, Thomson translated Keller's thoughts and emotions by pressing symbols into her hand, enabling them to communicate effectively.

As described by Britannica, Keller piloted the plane through the "hand talk" that her and Thomson used. “The ’plane crew were amazed at her sensitive touch on the controls,” Thomson said. “There was no shaking or vibration. She just sat there and flew the ’plane calmly and steadily.”

Principal of the American Asylum Asks If Keller "Was a Fraud"

The amazing Helen Keller wrote her first book, The Frost King, when she was only 11. In 1892, an article titled "Is Helen Keller a Fraud?" was written by the principal of the American Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, Job Williams. His article appeared in the American Annals of the Deaf. According to Williams, readers noticed similarities between Keller's The Frost King and another published work Frost Fairies. Speculations arose, and it was suggested that Keller may have committed plagiarism.

Upon further investigation, Williams discovered that a woman who had briefly cared for Keller had read Frost Fairies to her when she was 8. Williams postulated that Keller's extraordinary memory enabled her to reproduce the story three years later, genuinely believing she was crafting it herself. He wrote, "It will not do to write down Helen Keller as ‘a fraud,’ ‘a humbug,’ ‘a back number,’ however much we may feel annoyed by the ‘Frost King’ composition. She has been in the full blaze of public curiosity too long, and been tested by too many scientific men and educational experts, to be a successful deceiver.” Is it possible Keller lied about her book?

The Verdict

I want to clarify that I'm not questioning Helen Keller's deafness or blindness or denying her existence. But the entire truth of her story seems to remain elusive, and that's okay. What I truly believe is that human potential knows no bounds. While disabled individuals may encounter unique challenges that able-bodied people do not, we shouldn't underestimate their capacity for extraordinary accomplishments.

What we should question, however, is Keller's character. In school, we were exclusively presented with Keller's awe-inspiring accomplishments and feats. Yet her views on eugenics and philosophy regarding the treatment of disabled individuals were not part of the narrative we were exposed to. I find it strange that these jarring aspects of her life and beliefs were never openly discussed or brought to our attention. Instead, our educators turned a blind eye to Keller's unthinkable, devilish politics.

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