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January 23: An example of confirmation bias, and just plain stupidity, among other things

 This morning a colleague had a conversation with a student about her upcoming "biography" informative speech assignment. 

"You could give your speech about Helen Keller."

"Helen Keller wasn't real."

He was flabbergasted, as was I when he told me. How could anyone think Helen Keller wasn't a real person? So, I of course looked it up. 

Apparently this is a trend on Tik-Tok. Either denying she existed (despite piles of evidence) or rejecting that she was deaf and blind. Why? Because she achieved things, including flying an airplane (what? a new one for me) that a deaf and blind person couldn't do. 

So much to unpack here. That persons with disabilities have to sit in a corner and not achieve anything because that doesn't fit my worldview. That anything that happened before I was born didn't exist or happen. That science, history, and research are lying. That Tik Tok is reliable as a source of information. 

This explains a lot.   

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