Fun fact about the IRS going after the poor people who were given cars. The legal reason they gave was that the people were given “prizes” thus subject to tax. However, as they were given gifts they should have taxed Opra. Sadly Opra has money for lawyers. So the government tried to go after the poor audience. Learn this in one of my first accounting classes. Very sad. Poor form, IRS.
my favorite Stevie joke was in an interview where he was making jokes about being blind but then ended by joking "it could be worse, at least I'm not black"
Courtside seats are probably much better because he can hear the actual game and not all the idiot drunk uncles around him. Also, hes stevie wonder..... he aint sitting with the peasants.
I once had a blind coworker who told me he and some other blind people wear sunglasses for the benefit of sighted people. Since it was impossible for him to make direct eye contact with people, sometimes people would be unsettled by his seemingly wandering eyes in conversation. With sunglasses, he could turn his head to near enough where the person was without needing to worry about having precise eye contact. Also, Stevie Wonder paying for courtside seats could also just be a way to not be stormed by fans in the general seats.
Also, blindness is a spectrum. My mother's best friend is legally blind, even with glasses. But she can see some things. If he has some sight, court side seats might have him close enough to properly enjoy the game
Can confirm. People tend to get real uncomfortable when you can't make eye contact the "Right way". Struggled with that all my life until a MTI straightened me out on it. I still have issues on occasion and you can actually watch people get confused and figidity. I'd imagine it would be far worse blind as you couldn't tell something was off.
My parents know a couple who are both blind. One of them commutes across Sydney every day by train. When they stayed with us they asked how many doors down the corridor from their bedroom the toilet was. I told them and offered to leave the doors open so they could hear the echo as they walked past. They said it was fine and it was actually easier to count closed doors as the echo is very different between a closed door and a wall. When my dad walked them around the house they asked what the large new object was beside the house. My dad said he’d bought a caravan since they last visited, which was five years prior. They also raised a daughter, they kept forgetting to turn lights on for her when she was young but she said it was fine and got very used to walking around a dark house most of the time, only turning on lights when she needed to read or do something requiring good vision.
I'm "legally blind" with just 10% vision field left, zero depth perception. When explaining why a significant visual loss can be called blind I simply tell folks "If you woke up in the morning with my vision I guarantee you the first words out of your mouth would be "I'M BLIND!!"
Same, and the conspiracy that we can't see does not only extend to celebrities. I've been told more than once that I'm faking it for attention even though it's at the very bottom of the list of things I want to get attention for
I was considered legally blind without correction before Lasik, but even with correction they could not fully fix my eyes. Lasik got me as close to perfect vision as I will likely ever have. Cosmetic surgery my butt. Do you know how much it has saved me in eyewear costs and insurance?
My mom's best friend is legally blind. I had to explain that fact to my kids when we recently visited (I moved to a different country). I could tell they were genuinely confused by the need to explain certain things to her, that they felt were fairly obvious. But she can see some things, and can see well enough to avoid sufficiently sized things left inconveniently on the floor. Explaining that yes she is blind, and no, blind doesn't always mean zero sight, there is a legal line drawn for practical purposes was more difficult with the 7 year old than the 12 year old for some reason.
@@SassyGirl822006 That is pretty common developmentally how we think. At 7 you have a more concrete thinker, which is generally more black and white, right wrong, yes no, absolute type of thinking. By 12 you develop abstract thought and it is easier to understand concepts of things aside from all or nothings.
This legally blind thing is not a thing in Europe. You´d be "visually impaired". Here blind really means you can not see a anything. But I do know that "blind" means something different on the other side of the pond.
I've been told that blind people also wear sunglasses to keep themselves from getting poked in the eye by branches and other obstacles. Just because the eye can't see doesn't mean it can't feel.
Not even just that, they underestimate the compensation those without sight develop. Hell I met with a tutor in college for 5 weeks before I even noticed he was blind. And by "notice" I mean he said it to a girl joining us.
Without glasses, my husband is " legally blind." He has full vision with his glasses or contacts. It's just that without his glasses, the only letter not blurred out is the big E on the bottom.
I was half way through writing this- but in a paragraph and not a nice, concise sentence... so I'll just copy paste a reply. Mostly everyone seems to assume being blind means that you have no vision whatsoever and the World just looks black the whole time, but in actual fact blindness comes in many forms, some blind people can see nothing but still perceive motion, some can detect light and dark, theres blindness where you can make out blurry shapes and colours, but can't get any focus. There was a guy in the UK who had no vision but fought the DVLA to retain his drivers license because he could detect enough motion of vehicles around him and never crashed... I mean, they still banned him from driving - but yeah... I'm glad at least one other person understands that blindness isn't a binary condition.
Hell, it’s often not even “eternal darkness”. Do you see darkness behind you? No! You see nothing, no information because you don’t have sight there. Many blind people are like that, but forward.
Sounds like a privilege then.. get resources and special access and help when as you state everyone is blind it’s just what degree. Much like being trans or autistic today.
That every single person who claims he can see is a) a close friend of Stevie's, and b) has a decent to good sense of humor, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Stevie Wonder and his friends all have a decades long inside joke going that has gotten way out of hand.
I have thought that was the case pretty much since I first heard about this ridiculous conspiracy. I know for a fact that if I had a blind friend who wanted to prank people I would absolutely be down for assisting them.
Honestly, the more I hear, the clearer it becomes that Stevie sounds like an incredibly fun person to be around. Clever folks who enjoy jokes can often be kinda insufferable, but instead it sounds like he squarely falls into the "uses his cleverness for a good time" camp.
As someone who is visually impaired, I can promise that if you know a confident blind person, a lot of the time you won’t know they’re blind. Many people I encounter say it’s incredibly hard to tell I’m blind. It’s not rocket science to explain these things. Unfortunately society is a very long way from understanding how to accept blind people as you would anyone else. This was brilliantly written and it makes me so glad to hear how spot-on Simon was with justifying the situations. Great job, boys. ❤️
I don't have a physical disability (although I do have numerous non visible ones...). And it does seem to amaze and frustrate me that we have a cultural bias that people with a disability is somehow incapable of doing things that able bodied people can. The way I perceive it - Stevie grew up at a time where being visually impaired would have meant choosing 1 of 2 routes - give up and basically be on the scrap heap and in some sort of care home or kept at home as a recluse OR learn real hard and real quick tricks and methods to operate on a sighted world. His mother seemed very supportive of him and his music so I would really like to assume that she pushed teaching him to navigate with a cane, to move about the world using sounds and mapping an area etc. As he got more famous an entourage would make it easier to operate as people could check ahead and make sure environments would git his needs, and they could also give him input and guidance on the day knowing his needs. No one would notice as how many stars have requests and riders for gigs, and have people fusing over them while they are at an event? I do really hope that visually impaired people might have got some sort of inspiration from Stevie in the 70s and 80s (when society still had a problem understanding how disabled people did not need the cotton wool treatement). He was showing the world that disabled people had talents and personalities other than their disability and was accepted.
Queue all of the how the hell did you write this comments your bound to receive for daring to mention you’re blind in a RU-vid comment section. But lol yeah fully agreed. Most people are convinced. I have some vision left and in fact I got yelled at last week by someone for bumping into them at my house once they had come over for a party even though, the host, me, is blind they had no idea. So they yelled at me for bumping into them and I had to awkwardly explain to them how they were totally wrong about my lack of eye contact throughout the night lol
I have a friend who is blind, and her friends used to find an empty parking lot and let her driver their car around. Obviously never drove with other cars. It's more common than people think. She also is a concert level pianist, singer, plays guitar, and has multiple college degrees. She is an expert level knitter and crocheter. Her other friends and I joke we sometimes forget she is blind.
There was a Top Gear episode where a blind man *raced* around the test track with verbal instruction, and set a better time than a couple of sighted celebrities had. Many handicapped people find amazing ways to work around their handicap as much as possible and live life to the fullest. Good for them.
As an audio engineer, who played in many bands I can attest mic stands often make a noise when the joint is loose and the arm drops. Also Paul bonked his head quiet good on the thing, at least making a bonking noise, maybe even amped over the monitor speakers and probably accomplished by some sort of Paul McCartney "ouf" noise and a loud miss stepping foot step sound. All enough to assume something might fall in that vague direction.
Yeah this one seems obvious to me. Plus mic stand bases can be huge, he could've been touching it with his foot. If he felt it move, he'd be aware that it was tipping and in what direction it was going. I didn't see the mystery here at all.
Didn't even look like he "caught it". The video looks like he heard or felt something over there and put his arm out in case. The stand looked like it hit his bicep, and then rolled down to his hand. I swear he looked very confused when he was holding it, as if "What the hell did I just grab?".
This kind of shit bothers me so much. I’m legally deaf, but I do retain some hearing (for now anyways, I have a degenerative disease that will eventually kill all the nerves in my ears) and people will be like “what do you mean you’re hearing impaired? You heard that one thing I said at that party in 1992, and the music was real loud. You can’t possibly be deaf.” It frustrating and frankly just gross.
My father was friends with a blind mine. He told me a story of when he was visiting him. He was leaving and asked, "Lights on or off?" The blind man said,"surprise me" Blind people have a wonderful sense of humor.
This has been my FAVORITE episode of Decoding the Unknown! The collaborative writing was so brilliantly done, that it deserved a comment. This is my first one after untold hours of listening to Simon's many videos across all his channels👍 Fantastic job by everyone guys ❤
Whoever believes in this theory would freak out so much with that man who was blind yet managed to play video games and ride his skate. “Blindness is a spectrum!” someone would say, and yeah, it is, but that man didn't have eyes at all.
Absolutely love the cameraderie and support on your team. You're so positive about your writers and they seem to back each other up all the time. You all seem so friendly and non competitive with each other. It's lovely to see there are nice people out there in the world!
I watch a RU-vidr that is blind. He has a small circle of sight that is often "snowy." He uses his tablet and enlarges portions of what he wants to see. He has written and illustrated 3 children's books. They are absolutely beautiful.
For the Shaq in the elevator story I can think of another explanation. I imagine if someone as big as Shaq is breathing you can hear it in an elevator, and if the breathing is coming from a couple feet above your head the odds of it not being Shaq are quite small
I would also like to point out that a sighted person would probably have recognised Shaq when the door opened, rather than after walking in and pressing the button.
Being blind doesn’t mean blindfolded with an iron mask where nothing penetrates the eyes not even an x-ray. A lot of people who are considered legally blind can see the change in light, motion, and even colors to some degree. Let’s not also forget that advancements in the visual field of medicine have a lot of treatments to recover sight even if it’s just a small amount. Especially if you’re rich and connected like I assume Stevie is. I also find it funny that anyone can look at any reputable website that explains the very basics of blindness and its complexities and variable visual acuity yet still come up with this outrageous theories. It’s the same for the deaf, mute, paralyzed and pretty much every other disability. Shut I’m visually impaired, completely deaf (according to my wife), people wish I was mute, and despite many accidentally by choice attempts am somehow not paralyzed.
Fun fact, if blindness relates to a brain issue rather than an eye issue, the blind person may actually be able to catch objects and avoid obstacles even without seeing them at all. The optic nerve mostly sends information to visual area of the brain, but there are some offshoots to other parts of the brain. These offshoots if tgey are intact can trigger responses without the person being aware of having perceived anything at all. (Source: my neuroscience professor)
wait wait, you're trying to name most famous blind people and DIDN'T think of Louis Braille? ... someone reassure me I'm not insane and only know that name because I'm blind!
Yeah, that Saginaw was painful. We need a series of Simon trying to pronounce Midwest city names. I'd enjoy him staring blankly at Ypsilanti, Ixonia, and Weyauwega.
I genuinely hate that all these “xyz person couldn’t really be disabled” conspiracies because it is obvious that ableism and lack of exposure/education lead people to believe that disabled people are incapable of living fulfilling lives. I believe the number is 90% of blind people are unemployed and it’s often because of discrimination and not due to them being incapable. I’ve found people can’t comprehend how disabled people learn to accommodate themselves and whether intentional or not never give disabled people the opportunity to show them or challenge their preconceived beliefs.
Most conspiracies bug the hell outta me, but stuff like this infuriates me. It's so, SO disrespectful. Doubting the moon landing or whatever is one thing, but these are human beings with feelings and emotions, hopes and dreams, IMMENSE TALENT, etc. My next door neighbor is legally blind. She's the sweetest woman in the building and has more friends and thrice the social life of myself, haha. We always talk about sports when we find ourselves waiting for the elevator. She's better at absorbing stats than anyone I've ever met. Just because she can't see the TV worth a damn doesn't mean she's not paying attention. Fortunately, she has a job at the University of Utah, so she doesn't make up part of that particular statistic. Intelligent but blind beats the hell out of imbecile with sight.
This format was really interesting, I'd love to see more back-and-forth arguments like this. It's especially welcome on DTU where having multiple perspectives could be really beneficial. Thanks Danny and Dave!
Hell yesss. I love that record. Haven't listened to it in ages. My buddy and I saw them at the House of Blues in Vegas in the early '00s. We just stood there, mouths agape, completely mesmerized. Another friend of mine almost fell out of the balcony trying to get Victor Wooten's attention at the end of the show. 😂
It sounds to me like Stevie is a highly intelligent man who has lived with being blind all of his life and has a penchant for teasing people who think this "disables" him. I get the impression that he knows his "limits" and he knows what people think his limits are.
Basketball is probably one of the most interesting sports you could get into as a blind person. It’s got a really distinctive sound, if you think about it. Squeaking shoes, the ball hitting the ground, the rim and the net. You’re probably getting a pretty decent idea of what’s happening.
It's sad, not just with blindness, but with all form of disabilities, many expect disabled to act like helpless children, so as soon as somebody disabled is sucessful and independent, they think they can't be disabled. Ironically, I feel like this has been cemented by all those feelgood movies getting awards and praise for depicting disabled people as helpless and only existing for the real protagonists to learn a lesson about appreciating their own lives or similar.
Much of this speculation could be resolved by simply speaking with another blind person....unless part of the conspiracy is blindness doesn't exist... which is just bizarre.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="3185">53:05</a> it's not about the mass in the elevator. It's about how the mass is situated. So Shaq would be like a wall. And if you add a wall to any room you could tell there's a sound difference because some sound bounces everywhere except for where the wall is. People use their eyes to see how big a room is. Blind people use sound to hear how big a room is, how close a wall is, if there's a gap in the wall etc... It's what tapping a stick on the ground is about. Sighted people can do this too but visual stimulation does get in the way of this.
Two things: Before the internet, there were telephones. Watching Whitney Houston singing the Star Spangled Banner during the 1991 Super Bowl, the camera panned to Stevie Wonder and my phone blew up. “Why is he there???” Secondly, I’ve read that scent is tied very closely to memory so I don’t doubt any random people can smell others. Three times I’ve smelled a third person’s cologne who had hugged the second person I was standing next to.
YES to the scent comment. I have a crazy-keen sense of smell (which can and often sucks) and could identify almost any of my coworkers, past or present, from their scent alone. Colognes and perfumes, obviously, but also shampoos, deodorants, laundry detergent, breath, hygiene habits, diets (this one's weird and might come off as insensitive, but cultures with particularly specific dietary habits just smell different, simple as that), alcoholic beverage of choice, cat owners, the list goes on and on. I could smell a dead mouse in the wall at least a week before everyone else at work. It was awful. And yes, aromas and memories go hand in hand. My favorite smell in the world is a blooming Russian olive tree. I smell them every May and immediately feel 7 years old again, counting down the days to summer vacation in Ms. Anderson's class, haha.
This is my great grandma's time to shine 🙌 she was the lunch lady at the school for blind that stevie went to for the short period he was in Saginaw. Maybe that's why he wasn't aware?
In 2010 here in Las Vegas these 6 young Latinas came up to me and said " did you see One Direction is going to make that blind Black guy Famous?" Because he sang Superstition with them. The girls were 16- 24 years old. They didn't know who Stevie Wonder was .I had to enlighten those Younglings. It was sad. They had heard a few songs and recently I saw 👀 a few of them and one had a new baby 👶 and I played Isn't She Lovely for the baby. Stevie Wonder is purely one of the most important innovative musicians to walk the earth. 🌎 I have had multiple conversations with him over the last 40 years .
I grew up in St. George, Utah and have been to hundreds of concerts in Las Vegas, from punk rock bands at the Huntridge, Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, and Vegoose Music Fests at Sam Boyd, Phish at the T&M, countless bands at the original Joint, HoB, etc. etc. Sounds like you have a rad job and I'd love to ask you a million questions. Instead I'll just compliment your hilarious username. 😂
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="200">3:20</a> Bocelli and Feliciano are both legends. I can almost guarantee that Simon knows at least one song by each.
Simon, Anthony Anderson is in Transformers. He was the “advisor” to the unrealistically attractive woman who found the decepticon’s “code.” I also remember him from Romeo Must Die. He’s a comedian, I’d love to hear the tone he’s using in his quotes, he’s probably as sarcastic as I usually am😂
I can honestly say I've never questioned Stevie Wonder's blindness. Not all blind persons are completely blind. It's not my place to tell a person they aren't blind. That's just ignorant of me who is sighted. I have bigger things to worry about than Stevie's degree of sightedness.
When he came to my city he was seen at the local grocery co-op walking around buying stuff. He had the glasses on but he wasn't acting blind. So people were saying then he wasn't blind.
how is someone supposed to "act blind" 😭 someone who's been blind most/all of their life are going to navigate things differently to someone who lost their sight a month ago. seems like everyone expects the latter
Sighted people can also learn the "tricks" blind people use (echolocation, feeling presence, etc). I'm sighted and can do all those things. I also don't know why so many people think blind people are incapable of so many things. Really boggles my mind
My mum had severe cataracts for several years whilst waiting for surgery. She was still working and driving with no issues. When she finally got to the doctor they told her she was fully blind in one eye and only had 25% in the other. She just said things were blurry but legally she was blind.
I don't remember his name, but there's literally a blind person who learned to echolocate well enough by clicking his tongue to ride a bicycle at full speed through trails and open terrain and such. While not a motorcycle I'm sure a similar properly could be applied to riding a motorcycle. You can learn to get around without being able to see even without a walking stick. The stick itself is an audio tool to help the visually impaired be able to get around. The walking stick is often seen as a Trope in movies where someone bumps into someone with The Walking stick. The clicking of the stick as you walk helps people echolocate where they are. It's even entirely possible that Stevie's perception of the environment through sound is acute enough that he could have known simple by sheer size of the person in the elevator with him that it was Shaq.
These explanations are actually quite plausible to me, as I have both poor eyesight and very high anxiety that makes me take note of ambient sounds and sensations. Over a few years I've also learned quite a bit about different types of blindness and methods of navigating the world. People are accustomed to thinking that the blind are utterly helpless and must require someone to step in unless they're faking or exaggerating, which would greatly fuel witnesses' incredulity.
I can't help but laugh at how badly he pronounces musicians names. Dionne Warwick, The Shirelles, not because of spelling, but because he has no idea who these people are. lol You young pups today, I tell ya what.
In the UK we do indeed have the fantastic Chris McCausland on Strictly Come Dancing (UK version of Dancing with the stars) at the moment. The other thing is, even if he isn’t blind (which I don’t believe), does it actually matter? I don’t think people buy his music because he is blind.
He and people like him can discern very vague shapes and motion. Combined with relying on other senses over a long life that's how he gets along. He's blind in every way that matters.
I once dated a boy who had begun driving pickup trucks at the age of 8, and combine harvesters by age 12. His family worked maize and wheat harvest from Texas to North Dakota, and back, every summer. All this driving was done on private property, therefore it was, and still is, legal in the US.
I’m blind but don’t wear sunglasses regularly. Some blind people wear them because they are light sensitive. Others wear them to protect their retinas to keep what little vision/light perception they have left. And, Lachi is a fabulous blind musician.
Anyone who has played air hockey against my blind friend, or shot airsoft BBs at each other with him, has observed superhuman hearing and spacial awareness.