User blog comment:Tanglefrost/Survivor: Con Dao- Character Applications/@comment-32574574-20200121031747

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Name: Daniel Dole (20)

Current Residence: Washington D.C.

Occupation: Political Science Student

Claim to Fame: My greatest accomplishment is something internal. Graduation Day for me was the greatest day of my life because I was able to prove a lot of people wrong. A lot of people both students and adults, did not expect me to be the valedictorian of my high school, because of my Asperger’s, but I was. Standing in front of a few thousand people was nerve-wracking, let me tell you, but it was a feeling of pride I seldom have felt before.

Hobbies: Writing, crossword puzzles, reading philosophical works and watching nonfiction movies

Pet Peeves: Those who try to act like they follow politics and then prove that they don’t know the slightest thing about it – and that goes for both liberals and conservatives. The same rule can be applied to anyone who knows nothing of what they talk about and still act like they’re an expert at it.

If You Could Have Three Things on the Island, What Would They Be and Why: 1) My cell phone, to record memories of this experience in case I want to look back on it. 2) An unlimited tub of ice cream, because, it’s ice cream… what else can I say? 3) A book – preferably “The 33 Strategies of War” by Robert Greene... I never understood why everyone hypes up his “48 Laws of Power book”, I honestly find it overrated.

SURVIVOR Contestant You Are Most Like (can be my fanon or canon): In the 11 years I’ve watched Survivor, I don’t think I’ve found a contestant I can relate to quite more to than Christian Hubicki of Survivor: David vs. Goliath. He’s weird, but he’s also incredibly sharp. I was admired by his gameplay the most out of any non-winner, and I hope I can play the game similar to his, if not, better.

Reason for Being on SURVIVOR: I’ve been a fan of the show for more than a decade, ever since my mother allowed me to watch the show. I feel that there’s this itch that I’ve been scratching for 11 years now, and I want to compete so that I can get rid of that itch. I’m ready for this game!

Why You Will “Survive” SURVIVOR: Yeah... that might be the most difficult part (chuckling). Honestly, I think adapting to the environment, while it may be a challenge initially, I’ll be able to overcome it. My body has this tendency to quickly adapt to my surroundings, primarily because I feel like I’d have no other choice. I have incredibly sensitive skin, so that may be a problem but at the same time, I’m willing to try anything and I’m not someone who will go down easily. As far as survival goes, there’s no quit in me.

Why You Will Be the Sole SURVIVOR: I’m going to win against all odds, because I know how to evaluate people. I know from my experience in the political field who is going to be a threat to win, whose votes will be easy to control (in Survivor terms, that’s called a “goat”), and I know enough not to ruffle feathers too early and not to establish myself as a threat too early. I’ve evaluated this game inside and out, and I believe this season is my season to win.

'''Rate your castaway’s strategic, physical, and social game out of 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Provide a reason why you chose the numbers.'''

Strategic: 9 – The valedictorian of his high school, a 20-year old political strategist, someone whose college essay was devoted to talking about the fundamentals of Chess, the author of a book at 14, and a man with an IQ of 165, Daniel uses his brain to his advantage almost all the time. Often that’s because he has trouble with everything else. Daniel promises to be an expert Survivor strategist, but at the same time, he knows well enough not to come out of the gates as a threat too early.

Social: 5 – Daniel can be an outlandish person – to some people, that may be seen as a valuable trait given that it provides entertainment for the tribe. For others, they may see his quirky behavior as a liability, or they may be completely annoyed or turned off by him. His social game is going to be dependent on the views of the other contestants he is with; Daniel hopes that he doesn’t alienate people however.

Physical: 3 – Daniel is the first one to admit that he will not be the strongest person on the tribe in terms of challenges. He’s a hard worker, and someone who can provide the work ethic that the tribe needs back at camp, but he is not a challenge threat, nor is he someone to be entirely confident in performance-wise.

What could cause your castaway to win? Should Daniel win the game, it is because of his strategic and social gameplay. He doesn’t intend to reveal that he has Asperger’s, but even he admits that his fellow castaways may catch on to his diagnosis at some point. His diagnosis could be of an advantage to him, because A) people may see him as less threatening physically, and B) Daniel is incredibly intelligent, which would make him a dark horse in this competition.

What could cause your castaway to lose? Daniel is a wild-card candidate. If you ask him, he says he can win the game because of his strategic capabilities, but it’s one thing to be smart outside of the game of Survivor, and its’ another thing to make bold moves and be a strategist within the game. Daniel, as someone who is a committed superfan, will do whatever it takes to win, but as much as that may help his game, it may also hurt it.

What kind of castaways would your castaway align with? Daniel hopes to align with the fellow underdogs, knowing that he’ll bond more with them than any of the other castaways. Daniel understands his limits socially, and he believes if he can align with fellow outsiders, perhaps accompanied by a few physically stronger allies, he’ll be in a safe position.

What kind of characters would your castaways avoid or be enemies with? Daniel is not a fan of super loud and obnoxious people, and those people would be the tribemates that Daniel would seek to avoid rather quickly. It doesn’t bother him, he says, given that those same tribemates would probably avoid him as well.

Please provide a small paragraph of backstory:

Daniel was born on January 3, 2000. He is the only child of Elsie & Warren Dole, both of whom live in Columbus, Ohio. When Daniel was six, he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome; one of the traits associated with Asperger’s is sensitivity to sound, and Daniel found a coping mechanism to deal with his parents’ frequent arguing: scream as loud as you can. Daniel’s parents divorced two years after he was diagnosed, agreeing to have joint custody of him (which Daniel jokingly says was “among the only things they ever agreed on”).

Daniel was an exceptionally bright kid, and at the age of 14, he wrote a book titled, “In Case of Emergency: Break Glass”, about a kid with all the qualities of autism living in a world where the diagnosis of “autism” didn’t actually exist. He was bullied frequently for his diagnosis, ever since elementary school, mostly for not understanding the social cues most neurotypical people understand. Such bullying has made him develop more of a tough exterior around people he doesn’t know. Ultimately, those who are willing to listen to Daniel can understand that he has a soft side that doesn’t always come out initially.

Daniel is a self-described democratic socialist, and he has been working as a political strategist for progressive candidates within the state of Ohio since 2016. He has organized Black Lives Matter protests, climate strikes, and March For Our Lives rallies across the country. Among the issues he is passionate about is criminal justice reform, specifically with regards to police brutality and the abolition of private prisons. Despite his views, which many of his tribemates may view as “radical”, Daniel does not intend on sharing his political positions with other tribemates – and is more than willing to align himself in the game with someone who is to the political right of him, understanding that alliances and personal friendships must transcend beyond party politics. Daniel rejects the notion that bipartisanship can’t exist: “I disagree with people – many of which are within the same ideology I align myself with – that argue that we can’t coexist peacefully with those we disagree with politically. That type of thinking is destined to get us nowhere in life, if we refuse to accept other’s people’s beliefs”.

He cites Alan Turing as his greatest influence in life, given how many setbacks he had as a child, and how he sought to overcome them. Daniel mentions, “Alan Turing accomplished so much that so little of us care to know about. He quite literally won World War II for the Allies; however, all of those accomplishments were washed away by the British government for the simple fact that he was gay.”