I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it has become a big conspiracy theory among teens in Tiktok the idea that Helen Keller was fraud that didn’t exist, and the main argument to back this is “how could someone be both blind and deaf and still be successful and write books”. That’s plain ableism. This entire thing is just deeply ableist and the fact that an ableist conspiracy theory like this can spread so easily among kids is just scary.
Conspiracy theories, misinformation, fake news and bigotry are not a generational thing! It’s not a “boomer” thing, this is something that happens among all generations.
Reading this medium article made me lose my mind at how generational politics are truly rooting people’s brains:
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It’s gotten to the point where it isn’t even a joke anymore as it originally may have been. Generation Z literally does not believe Helen Keller existed. And frankly, I’m having a hard time accepting that she did myself.
I don’t feel bad or wrong for it, and I don’t think anyone else my age does either. But older generations seem to think differently. “Helen Keller overcame many obstacles, and she’s a great inspiration,” my mother said in an attempt to reason with me. She failed to invalidate my disbelief.
Does it stem from our own insecurities — could it be that a blind, deaf woman with more success in life than all of us is too much to grasp? Possibly.
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Boomers and Generation X love to chirp on the younger ones, quoting the adage, “don’t believe everything you read online,” but we’re the ones who have the most trust issues when it comes to news.
We have to fight to have our opinions about the state of our country heard and understood by older generations.
We have to march in the streets and endlessly retweet to try and stop our schools from being shot up.
We have to hear about the injustices committed at the border, against the black community, and against women, all of which are covered in lies that sugarcoat the situation, and you wonder why we have trust issues when it comes to the government.
We don’t have to believe in Helen Keller, and it shouldn’t be surprising if we don’t. The world we were born into makes us profoundly different than other generations, and hopefully, it will also make us into change agents.
This person is trying to paint as a quirky Gen Z thing not believing that someone could be blind and dead and more successful than her, then acting like being Gen Z makes you inherently progressive, bro what is wrong with people.
honestly if u have any teens/gen z ppl in your life, esp if they’re loved ones, like….please ask them about it (and discuss ableism).
also besides there being literal footage on youtube of helen keller (she only passed away in the 1960s), there was also a documentary released this year about her socialist politics and advocacy
There are live updates happening on most major news outlets. Posts circulating on tumblr are behind the times. If you want ACTUAL UP TO DATE NEWS with a minimum of panic and rabble-rousing then check elsewhere.
Yes, this is as bad as it looks. No, a panicky tumblr post does not have all the information. Prefer verifiable facts to social media soundbites.
Additionally, check your state and local news sources. There are related events already happening at the state/local level—it’s equally important for you to know what’s happening close to home. Be informed!
GO TO A REPUTABLE NEWS OUTLET.
fuck reputable news sources. cnn is literally calling the magats ‘anarchists’. break the mainstream media’s grip on the narrative and crowdsource your news. we live in a day and age where twitter users are fact-checking pundits.
if you want legit real time news, the just chatting section on twitch is where its at.
also lol, i was posting fucking updates on tumblr from twitter as they happened, hours before they were reported by main stream media.
“REPUTABLE” means fuck all, the people in main stream media use words they literally don’t fucking understand to describe situations that are beyond their grasp.
there are legit, crowdfunded journalists posting live footage from stuff like this every time it happens. if you want to know what’s going on before the main stream media tries to put the rose colored lens of white cisheteronormativity on it i suggest you do some actual work to find reliable coverage.
Mr PhD in philosophy doesn’t know even the most basic principals of anarchist philosophy, imagine that! Why would I want news from people like this turd who continuously and feverishly make statements that are patently false?
I’m not saying you should eschew all contemporary news outlets, but what i am saying is if you want coverage of events and not to be sold a point of view, you should check out alternate sources. just chatting on twitch has several good options for people on the left who can use words in the context they’re meant to be used, thus providing a better depiction of what’s going on - there are people to avoid, to be sure.
there’s soooooo many options for media that are not neoliberal centrists feigning surprise and disgust, or who are actually surprised, because they’re incapable of seeing things for what they are because they’d destroy their worldview.
as to on the ground twitter coverage, i’d reccommend:
and if you prefer twitch, i like theserfstv, ran by a canadian metis dude, who’s also, y’know, a cultural marxist like anyone else who’s not a 30 year old boomer. this is probably me being biased, but the chat mods are some very pleasant trans women, and being a trans woman myself, this is a big deal for me.
anyway, stop shitting your pants about people getting news from sources that you, personally, don’t approve of. it makes you look dumber than a bag of hammers.
social media is one of the biggest sources of actual, fact based reporting right now, you just need to know where to look and what to look out for.
Honestly one of my favorite things to come out of the 2011 era was the mass distrust of mainstream media, even among liberals and centrists. I guess that’s over now.
For totally 100% upstanding and reputable news sources look no further!
for context: twitter is plagued by art-thief-bots. Any image that has multiple comments along the line of “I want this on a tshirt” will be automatically be uploaded and sold without the artist’s knowledge. So artists started making images full of blatant copyrighted images like the one above, and asking people to spam comment “I want this on a tshirt” then report the site to disney. A few of these tshirt-bot sites have actually been taken down this way.
Detail of a wall painting depicts a blind harpist, from the Tomb of Inherkhau (TT359). New Kingdom, 20th Dynasty, ca. 1189-1077 BC.
Deir el-Medina, West Thebes.
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