For all our many current problems, we are hardly a totalitarian society, and I find it really offensive that you would seek to equate our country with "some of the crueler totalitarian regimes of history."

Because I can assure you, were that actually the case, you certainly wouldn't be posting such comments -- at least, not for very long. Rather, I reckon that either you'd find yourself being held in some undisclosed locale pending charges of subversion or misprision of treason, or you'd be sustenance for the crustaceans prowling the bottom of the Hudson River or Chesapeake Bay.

Offering up such overheated false equivalencies only serves to undercut your own arguments, many of which are otherwise often quite valid, because it makes you sound both irrational and intemperate. That tends to turn most people off, to the point where you end up preaching only to a very small choir of like-minded individuals. That's hardly the way to effect any sort of meaningful change.

Cassandra may have had the gift of prophecy, but Troy was still heedless of her warnings about its fate, because its denizens thought her to be a crackpot.

Nelson Mandela's native language was Xhosa. He learned English in order to become a lawyer, and then Afrikaans while he was imprisoned on Robben Island, so that he could converse with his jailers. South Africa's current president, Jacob Zuma, is Zulu.

The overwhelming majority of South Africans I met during my time there were multilingual. As you can imagine, communications can be rather complex, and people do make a great effort to accommodate one another in that regard. I can't imagine what it's like to sign for the hearing impaired with so many languages.

In answer to your question:

Did you read any of the reports... ?

Yes. And the same as you "all closely", (at least "all" from what I consider the serious press), and I noted they all use caveats when referring to the man as a "fake", "fraud", etc., which made me think that it may not be as yet all cut and dried.

And please, you are not alone. I also "care" about the issue, and very deeply, perhaps because I happen to be an independent voluntary advocate for adults with severe learning disabilities (many also with physical disabilities including deafness) or as the US rather more pejoratively, at least imo, refers to them, with "intellectual disabilities". (as an aside the Indian term is precious and we should all adopt it, i.e. "people with different abilities", as they so are!).

I could also note that as an independent advocate I have experienced official advocates wrongly accuse me of stepping on their toes, so as in every report I have read so far the complainants are mainly from the DFSA it occured to me that maybe, and I reiterate, just maybe, there might be something of a turf war here.

In any case, I reiterate, I have not come to any conclusion, just waiting to see how it pans out, and meanwhile I concord absolutely and word for word with "The Limping Chicken" (independent news blog for the deaf in the UK)

"If the accusations that the man was a "fake" turn out to be true, on a day when the world saluted a man who fought oppression, a guy stood on stage and effectively oppressed another minority - deaf people."

What you said should really go without saying -- or one would certainly hope so, at least here if nowhere else.