Comments on: Tweets from Hi_Dan, A Twitter Troll

By: Dan Connell

Dan Connell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:18:03 +0000

For those of you who don’t know me (my name is Dan), I’m not the troll … and I jsut hate it when idiots like him have the same first name as I do….

The troll wrote “@spunkyfirefly Besides Marlee Matlin, name ONE successful Deaf person. You’ve abused your daughter by refusing to fix her broken hearing. (link)”

Humm… lets see here….

My Dad has been and is totally deaf … he’s a master wood-wright. He holds degrees in Math, Chemistry, Agriculture, and Radio Electronics. Owns four houses, and scads of land. Earned it all himself (no rich relatives in my family, sorry)… He’s much admired in the local community… and he’s an all around good guy. He has never cared to “fix his broken hearing”… as far as I can see he is not “broken” in any way….

My Sister was deaf (before her untimely passing) and was the Sr. VP of Finance for a very large cell phone company in Alabama. My Dad did not consider my sister to be “broken” due to hearing loss…

I was profoundly deaf for 20 years (before my CI)… I hold five different engineering degrees and a business degree (all with 4.0 or 3.9 GPA). I went to mainstream public schools and to mainstream Universities (just lik emy Dad and Sister did) … five years ago I started a business with $20K and now it has a valuation of $4 million…. I married (while I was still deaf) a lovely woman (normal hearing) who holds a PhD and is a Heart Surgeon.. oh.. and she also holds a registered nursing license… we have a lovely little boy, he may go deaf one day too… but I will not consider him “broken” if he does…

Also, I don’t consider myself to have been “broken” when I went deaf … and I don’t consider myself “fixed” or “repaired” now that I have a CI (even though I can hear at near 100% in my right “ear”).

Guess the definition of “successful deaf person” is not what it could be these days.

…dan…
Dan Connell´s last blog ..(NL-0045) CI at 150 days

By: @MaevieBaby

@MaevieBaby — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:03:04 +0000

I remember this guy! He contacted me over Twitter. He seemed nice at first before he started making rude comments about Deaf people, Muslims, Gay people, and countless other Twitter users. I found the fact that has been mentioned in this blog–that he seeks out people to disagree with–quite weird as well.
If you have to get two Twitter accounts because you’re offending so many people, maybe you should just either stop tweeting or embrace the fact that you’re officially an internet troll.
The worst part is that he would make anti-Deaf tweets starting with “@MaevieBaby”. I didn’t like that anyone who looked at his account saw MY NAME next to his inappropriate comments. It made me very uncomfortable that people may assume I was in agreement with these statements.
Sure, I believe in free speech, but he is making low blows accusing people of being abusive just because they are not choosing elective surgery. It’s a choice for people to make, and they should be able to make it on their own without pressure or accusations from anyone, especially unsolicited opinions from random people who search them on the internet.
So, for the record, if you ever see my twitter account in conjunction with @Hi_Dan or @Dan_Schwartz, just know that it should not imply that I agree with any of his tweets, especially when it comes to ASL, CIs, or Deaf culture in general.

…don’t even get me started on the politics!

By the way, Sarasera, I like your blog; I’ll follow it on my blog too!
-Maeve
blog: TL-DR.tk

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:20:39 +0000

He emailed me last night as well and requested an add to my Facebook list. I added him to my FB friends, but unfortunately after seeing this, I had to remove him. I have no tolerance for hatred such as this towards any deaf person, regardless of whether it's directed towards an adult deafened later in life who gets a CI and has never signed or a child who attends a state deaf school and communicates by ASL (and of course these are just two of MANY examples of folks that make up the deaf population in our country.) Michelle’s last blog post: Mapping #5 and Updates Courtesy of the Truly Fab Facebook Status

By: Powers

Powers — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:07:04 +0000

Looks to me like he met some of the more militant members of the Deaf community and now paints everyone with the same brush. Typical dichotomous thinking.

By: A Deaf Pundit

A Deaf Pundit — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:00:51 +0000

I’m not so sure about that, Dianrez. Dan’s hiding his twitter account now, and he is now asking @Deaf258 to take the conversation to email. He doesn’t want people to see what he’s saying.

By: Dianrez

Dianrez — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:33:39 +0000

Good question, Mog. I'm guessing that he tried to join in the Deaf community but couldn't hack it because of his attitude. He also probably didn't benefit from therapy or devices, so he attacks both deaf and Deaf people with whatever he can think of to throw. This is the way of a common troll--they get off on upsetting people. They don't have very much in the way of outlets or imagination. Probably doesn't have much going for him in general. Rather than expose trolls, delete them at every opportunity. This is what makes them shrivel up and blow away. Dianrez’s last blog post: How Oralism Divided the Deaf Community

By: Mog

Mog — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:01:15 +0000

I wonder why he is so vindictive, what made him so bitter that he can’t live and let live.

By: A Deaf Pundit

A Deaf Pundit — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:00:58 +0000

What kills me the most is that you're a CI user. You are NOT culturally deaf, yet this guy is bashing the hell out of you because you disagree with him. *boggles* But thank you for exposing this troll. People like him need to be exposed, so the world is forced to confront the fact that vitriolic discrimination against the deaf does exist. I hope he keeps talking. Let the world see his hatred. A Deaf Pundit’s last blog post: Open Letter To ALL Deaf Organizations

By: ZenMonkey

ZenMonkey — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:58:13 +0000

My reaction to this has surprised me because I really thought I had a handle on my feelings about people like this. I’ve seen and vicariously experienced a lot of audism, but I rarely see anything as repulsive as this. (With one exception.) Ignorance is one thing, and I’ve had great experiences with people who were simply ignorant but willing to listen and open their minds and hearts. But deliberate hate speech like this just shocks me anew.

Meredith is quite right, though, that coming from a wanker like this, at least it’s relatively easy to ignore.

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:34:55 +0000

I let this one through the spam filter so you can see how full of *** this guy is, and how unconcerned, unashamed he is of anything he spews out. Here's another lovely tidbit from his other Twitter account (he had to make a separate one for hearing issues because he was offending too many people with his political stuff).

DSgtMacAttack Hey, what's up? Lets tag-team & beat the shit out of some libtards. @etoile in DC is my ripe, juicy target. Yours? (link)