Are You Sinister Or Even Very Sinister

Okay I will start. Only partial answers now.

1) I am sinister
2) I am very sinister; but my feet are not!
3) It has had a considerable impact on my life! In part because my hands are sinister but my feet or not.

No, no, no, no and no.

I have no room in my life for sinister, the world is already filled with sinister.

My answer was based on the following definition of the word sinister.

sin·is·ter
/ˈsinistər/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
adjective: sinister
1.
giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen.
"there was something sinister about that murmuring voice"
Similar:
menacing
threatening
ominous
forbidding
baleful
frightening
eerie
alarming
disturbing
disquieting
dark
black
suggestive of evil
evil-looking
ill-omened
inauspicious
unpropitious
portentous
eldritch
spooky
scary
creepy
minatory
minacious
minatorial
bodeful
direful
sinistrous
evil or criminal.
"there might be a more sinister motive behind the government's actions"

Not the following meaning of the word.

2.
ARCHAIC•HERALDRY
of, on, or toward the left-hand side (in a coat of arms, from the bearer's point of view, i.e., the right as it is depicted).
Origin

You'd have to define what sinister means to you.

I often believe things should be win win which is very difficult to achieve at times. The people that think someone else should lose to me are sinister.

Okay maybe some people do not realise sinister means left handed!
So I am left handed but right footed; I also scan a page in the opposite direction to others.
One effect on my life is my hand eye; foot eye and hand foot coordination is basically shot through. This means driving is out of the question; I can not travel on down escalators and even stairs can cause me a problem.

 

Scorpion -- the left hand reference relating to darkness and/or evil is one archaic basis/origin of the word.

Sinister, today has come to mean evil or malevolent.

Interestingly; I doubt that most left handed people would not have come the word sinister used in the context of being left handed. However; I like to look on the bright side of things, we are no longer being burnt at the stake!

Since I create and sell Rats,Bats and Vultures, there are many that seriously believe that I am truly Sinister.

I may or may not be "Sinister" but I am a "Sinistral"

There was a time (and still might exist) when left-handed people were all considered evil...Thus the word "Sinistral."

I'm proud of being right brained.

And since many of the shackles, placed on us by the Great Majority have recently been lifted, because of our superiority, WE ARE NOW TAKING OVER

Roger; I am glad you are here. Of course left handed means right brained. I am strongly left handed but also strongly right footed. In other words I am what is called cross lateral.
It adds another dimension for me.
In some ways my brain is missed wired, my guess is some here have already worked that out. Carmen you lucky; for some being left handed is more than a minor problem.
I would note it would not be wise to underestimate how strongly some left handed people feel about certain things.

I could have used the word sinistral instead of sinister in the title. However; I decided not to. The point being is that I would not necessarily consider my self sinister in the other sense of the word. Others would; in the past definitely; in the present???

 

https://wikidiff.com/sinistral/sinister

Thank you. Carmen.
''ominous, unlucky, illegitimate'' that is exactly how left handed people were viewed in the past. The present is so different; or is it?

Ok, I may have initially misunderstood the type of sinister meaning Scorpion had in mind to discuss.

So, lefthanded or righted, left brain or right brain, or left eye dominant or right handed right eye dominant or any combination including ones feet in my opinion have very little to do with anything art or otherwise.

I say this because I remember a childhood school friend who was born with no arms and yet he was able to do more with no arms than a lot of people who had both arms.

The power lies in something else, neither left or right is given much importance by me. :-)

The list of accomplished lefties in a specialty can often be more than 10% and at times be the top achievers.

Human beings put in positions to overcome do better.

Like the football team that can come back from a deficit to win. If a team can not come back from behind there is literally no way they are prepared to win the Super Bowl.

 

 You're welcome Scorpion.

Mario; that is an interesting point. Leonardo da vinci was strongly left handed; so have considered that to be significant others take a different view. What is interesting the genally held view for a fair time is that he painted with his left hand. Now; the the consensus is he painted with his right hand.
In respect to art; for me it is an open question; I would not be willing to come down on either side of the debate.
What I point at is there is a relationship the dominant hand and the dominant side of the brain. Different sides of the brain relates to different functions so there could be a link.

Carmen there can be positive sides as well as negative. Also I do actually believe that to some degree ''right brained'' people think a little (or maybe a lot) differently than ''left brained people''
right brained left hand, left brained right hand.

See below.

 

That is my point, Scorpion. Developing both has advantage.

Interesting article by Erica Dawson, neuropsychologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and an assistant professor at the Ohio State College of Medicine.

Forget the right vs. left myth: You’re whole-brained

Another, from McGill University, (Montreal, Quebec) Office for Science and Society

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/learning-stop-teaching-learning-myths

There is another discussion that interests me; I will probably leave it for some time.
Are artists visual thinkers (a lot claim they are) or linguistic thinkers (some definitely are).
If you look at the functions of different sides of the brain it would definitely lie into the above.

Carmen on that we definitely agree. In my case how evenly balanced my brain is both aspects are fairly well developed.
However I can not get away from the fact; that reason I can not drive a car and stairs cause me so much problem is linked to me left handed and right footed. And, no there are no simple solutions to that one!

The article is a very interesting one. The fact that I could read it in about a second is in many ways confirmation of what its say. My reading speed is about a page a second scan reading maybe on occasions up to 15 pages a second; it is limited by how fast I can turned the page. In my case no side of the brain is dominant or putting it the other way both sides are.
What the article misses fairly spectacularly is that there are accessibly issues for some (probably not all) that can not be ignored.

 

No simple solutions indeed — likely to be complex.

This article looks at pro/con, especially in regard to the publication Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

https://brainconnection.brainhq.com/2019/10/01/drawing-on-an-outdated-theory/

''Learning to Stop Teaching Learning Myths'' I spent over 30 teaching and that myth went out of the window over 20 years ago. The evidence pointed to a small influence of teaching learning styles' and it was negative. Hargreaves is well worth reading on that point. Mind you I live in the UK so I do not know if the same has happened elsewhere (I hope so)

The right brain left brain v which side of the body is dominant was dispelled a couple of decades ago.

The brain functions across all of it with different centers being active with each other. That then varies to a degree individual to individual.

The more important thing might be plasticity. Meaning the process of overcoming allows for a greater development of any of us.

African American culture is a tragic and joyous study of overcoming and adding to the overall energy and abundance of our culture. Jazz to rap, depth of perspective to being joyous the infusion at times is the major part of American culture.

''Learning to Stop Teaching Learning Myths'' it most definitely a myth and in many ways it is surprising it was given any credence. Then again the same is true of a lot in the education world.

 

Scorpion: re Mind you I live in the UK so I do not know if the same has happened elsewhere (I hope so)

That particular article, I posted the link for, is from McGill University, (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Office for Science and Society

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/learning-stop-teaching-learning-myths

I think ambidextrous and left handedness is very cool!

Although I'm boring as a right handed person, I can type with both hands! Yay, does that count as cool? LOL

Seriously though, I work with a lot of left handed people in the field of science. I wonder if left handed people are actually smarter than the rest of us?

To ALL !!

STOP USING THE WORD "AMBIDEXTROUS"

It's "Ambisinistrous"

Because it's always, Lefties having "2 left hands"

Never Righties having "2 right hands"

Sinister is derived from the Latin word sinistra, which just meant left, but in a society where right handedness was considered "normal" or non-threatening, the word came to have its other connotation. The world is full of objects found in every day life that are right-handed, even though most people just think they're "normal". Try to use scissors with your left hand and you will find out.

I like being left handed, in part because the right-handedness of so many things makes you be adaptable in ways that righties never have to be. You DO have to be ambidextrous (common usage) because there are lots of things that are easy for righties.

In regard to hemispheric laterality (right brain vs left brain), that's not always clear for lefties. Right handed people generally are left brained, but left handed people can be either. We also have a bundle of nerves that connect the two sides, so they are not like two separate brains, aside from those unfortunate folks who had surgery for epilepsy decades ago where their brains were cut in half.

I’m a lefty buttttttt back in my youth when I used to fight full contact I was very ambidextrous. I messed up opponents really really bad.

Peggy; no one would judge you (at least I hope not)
The judgement is with respect to word 'ambidextrous' I like you discovered the fact that 'left handed' was actively discouraged. I took no notice!
So the question is are people 'ambidextrous' from birth are were they made that way; and if so are they in fact 'ambidextrous'
Also there is the degree of 'left handedness' when you observe some people writing they right with their left hand in a 'similar way' to people who write with their right hand.
For strongly left handed people nothing could be further from the truth.

I am going to add this random thought in. People have often said to me are you scared of heights. No I love heights its depths that cause me the problem; and depths I am scared of. I in fact put this down to being cross lateral.
The fact that I am means I a very poor depth perception.

I have not read through the thread fully (yet).

Once, I was not at all sinister.

Until, I started using an iPad.

Now, I hold [the iPad] with my right hand and poke the screen with my left.

This is a function of how I use the folded back edge of the flip case to grip the pad.

So, the iPad gets credit for making me slightly sinister.

I am left handed. I have been called and referred to myself as a lefty and a south paw but no one has ever referred to me as sinister and I hope they never will.

I suppose if you are left handed you would have to be left brained too because in this world everything is taught right handed and as a lefty I had to turn instructions around in my head.

I had some very cruel teachers in grade school, one in particular but Mom and Dad explained her bad attitude toward me as her own disability to properly teach. Dad was right handed but he taught me to write so by the time I reached high school it didn't much matter which hand I used. I already knew how to write and do most everything a right handed person takes for granted. Of course that was to the credit of my father and grandmother, not my teachers.

The only thing Dad couldn't teach me was how to avoid getting ink on the side of my hand as I wrote. Still an issue for me today. Fortunately, I don't have to physically write much more than my signature these days.

Leslie,

RE:... "how to avoid getting ink on the side of my hand as I wrote."


A simple solution, learn to write "Mirror Image" as Leonardo did.

I'm convinced, that "Mirror Image" will eventually be an accepted form of communication.


Think of every other line of print being "mirror image"....Think of how it would speed reading.....Not having to go back to the left for every new line of text.

Leslie; I to hope that. It is very interesting to look at Mario's first comment and compare it with this

''Left-handers were routinely accused of consorting with the devil and, during the excesses of the Inquisition and the witch hunts of the 15th and 16th Century, left-handedness was sometimes considered sufficient to identify a woman as a witch, and to contribute to her subsequent condemnation and execution.''

Basically every adjective in the list was applied to 'left handed' people. I wonder if it is so different today.

Roger yes to '' A simple solution, learn to write "Mirror Image"''

There is so much more that can be added to this discussion. I think it should be clear that how strongly some feel about it.
I have stayed clear of any political aspects of the subject. I have also stayed clear of any linkage between this 'ism' (it is definitely is an 'ism' and those who have challenged me in the past soon found out just how strongly I felt about it) and certain other 'isms'.

However; returning to the quote ''Left-handers were routinely accused of consorting with the devil and, during the excesses of the Inquisition and the witch hunts of the 15th and 16th Century, left-handedness was sometimes considered sufficient to identify a woman as a witch, and to contribute to her subsequent condemnation and execution.''

You just might notice one of the words.

Leslie; I really do have a lot of admiration for your parents.

Leslie,

Back to..... "how to avoid getting ink on the side of my hand as I wrote."


There was a time when I was very young, I tried writing upside-down.

Not Me..... The Writing.

That didn't turn out so well

I was told by some old folks that, early in the 20th century, some Catholic schools were tying left handed kids' hands behind their back to force them to use the "right" side. I think I would have burned the school down.

My dad used to hit me and my brother if we used our left hands to hold a fork at the dinner table.

Doug I went to a Catholic school; it was happening in the 1960's too. Or at least something very similar.

Yeah they kinda had to stop that when they found in many cases forcing a lefty to write with the right hand often induced stuttering.

Jester I really doubt that would have stopped them. However you do make a good point.

Neither me nor my brother had trouble with stuttering, so I guess we were lucky. One of my sisters became ambidextrous, though.

JL,

I too was criticized for using my left hand when eating.

But I refused to change, keeping the fork in my left hand (the more skilled hand) and my knife in the right ( the stronger hand).

I thought that changing hands , not only was inconvenient, it causes sloppiness in my sake, and it was plainly STUPID!!


Only to find in my young adult life, that I was eating, exactly the way all my ancestors (the Europeans) ATE!!

Scorpion Design I do find the historic facts you are stating to be interesting and I can see how that would happen from everything I have heard of witch hunts. Still very sad to think of these things. Funny how it was just left handed women and not men who were persecuted.

Actually in this day and age I do kind of consider it an honor to be compared to the modern day witch. Probably one I do not deserve as I know a Wiccan and she is amazing as is her life. Of course she probably sugar coats things for me when she talks of her beliefs.

hahaha Roger mirror imaging sounds a little tricky to this old girl. Dad was actually a good teacher and my writing was comparable to any right handed person. He would have me sit for hours with good posture and practice making loops between the lines with the right slant and they all had to be even. He also tried to teach me to keep my hand raised a bit from the paper but by the time I would finish a paragraph my hand would be lowered down.

Another thing I always had troubles with was scissors. Now they have left handed scissors (at a cost) but it was always impossible for me to cut anything with scissors as a child. My grandmother was awesome as she taught me to knit, crochet, sew and many other girl stuff.

I also have to say that other than being harassed and degraded by my teachers I was a very popular child and was never ridiculed for being a lefty from my friends or siblings. I never saw it as an issue outside of the classroom and felt rather sad that there were people who would see it as such. Dad was right, they were only covering up their own inability to properly teach.

Leslie; in fact left hand men were persecuted. However; yes more true for women than men. The two isms really do collide.

The only place I can recall being encouraged as a lefty was little league baseball, where I could bat left handed and it was thought to make things more difficult for pitchers.

Because I was a violinist until my 20's, I developed an equality between both hands, for most things. win/win.
Playing piano, also developed my left hand, right brain.
now I can't do anything: Essential Tremors,
except::::::::::::: type as fast as ever I did when a secretary bird, and, am ok with the Mouse, for digital work/art.
otherwise,
cynical but not sinister...........dark/maybe!.....natural, b/c, I'm bright ! cruel, no.

Roger, my brother and I became right-handed. Thee was no standing up to my dad.

JL,

You and your brother began using the right hand

That does not make you and your brother "right-handed"

One doesn't stop being a Sinistral , because of the forced use of the right hand