Your friend is ...severely misinformed :) I'm not saying I necessarily agree with you, OP, I don't fully, but I can see how that comment might come across as insensitive.

As for it being better when you're blind ...that's a pretty nuanced one. A thing you lose when fully blind is things like a dependence on the current media ideal of what beauty is supposed to look like. You also lose being able to look at a person and making a snap judgment on this person based on their appearance. To put it more poetically, you lose the ability to judge a book by its cover. For some, this may be an advantage, I don't know.

obviously myths like "blind people can't be racist because they don't see skin color" are just that, myths. They may not immediately be aware someone's skin is colored differently then their own, which might hold it at bay, but if they find out, racism transcends just one's skin color. But again, it's something you'll only find out if you actually give the other person a chance to get to know you, which I think, overall, is a good thing.

Also, I think all the people that are blind that you know weren't born that way. So I can see how they might feel robbed of a sense; they essentially were. I have been blind all my life and not even the slightest interest in being able to see because at this point, the massive amount of new information would likely make it so I can't live my life for a significant amount of time and I'll never truly adapt to it, which means I'd have a sense to deal with that I can't make much sense of, forgive the pun, for the rest of my life. That personally sounds like a headache in a can to me.

So yeah ... your friend is verym misinformed, which you felt to be insensitive, but try to keep an open mind as well, not everyone may think like you or the people around you and I've always found it a healthy thing to keep that in mind :)

Yeah, being blind doesn't make you dare devil lol.

I know some blind people that say they prefer to be blind. They say that seeing was a distraction and if they had the chance they wouldn't go back.

Personally i think they are just coping.

Sight is precious, the world is beautiful; i miss seeing it the way i used to.

That whole thing about the senses heightening is crap. we use them more; that's it.

I've not been told I'm lucky to be blind, actually I might have once by my dad but I can't be sure, I think he said there's so much shit in the world be glad you can't see it, which is a silly statement as you don't need eyes to know that but taht's about it.

Tell her she can easily make her wish come true by wearing a blindfold all the time. Maybe challenge her to do it for 24 hours or a week.

I’ve had people get mad at me when I can get singled out and “helped.” People have said things like “blind people get everything!” One drunk guy at a bar took my cane and said, “I gotta get me one of these!”

With the diabetes friend, I get people assuming I became visually impaired from that disease instead of RP and they then try to shame me for that.

My sighted sister stops short of telling me that sometimes, as she has a tendency to devalue everyone else's problems, especially those that she's never experienced herself. I could accept this attitude if she actually had a winner posture and had either accomplishments or expertise in one or more fields to show, because that would demonstrate resourcefulness, but as it stands she's doesn't have any particular outstanding skills nor has she accomplished anything meaningful in life, so it really doesn't make sense. Her excuse is that she just doesn't care enough to dedicate to anything, but in reality she isn't very gifted, at least intellectually speaking, and I don't think she'd go far if she went blind.

I am not blind I’ve friends on both sides of the coin. And I’ve students who have to deal with both sides. People just……don’t understand.

Your friend sounds like she's trying to sympathize, and put a positive spin on it, while also trying to be woke and different by not admitting it's a negative thing. The whole "handicapable" thing.

Super misguided and annoying. I bet if you level with her nicely though she'll come around.

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