Good point...My post was in response to OP talking about confusion caused when telling hearing teachers, etc. about hearing loss. I just meant that hearing people may not assume you can hear better than you can if you just cut to the chase and say "I'm deaf", even though it may not be technically correct from a scientific/audiology standpoint.
I fully get that the Deaf Community would have other opinions, based on cultural identity and language, and all that. OP seems much more concerned about running into stupid hearing people than stupid deaf people! 
Oooh, just re-read that...please don't think I'm saying Deaf people who have opinions about whether someone qualifies as deaf are stupid...just trying to make a parallel statement and write that in a cute way.
