QuickiesSkepticism

Skepchick Quickies 8.13

Today, August 13, is Left Handers’ Day! I had no idea there were so many interesting words to describe people of the left hand persuasion. Also, I’m happy to let all the Southpaws know that the Leftorium is an actual store.

By the way, all of you sent in wonderful links this weekend, I had a lot of fun reading them and a tough time not putting them all in the Quickies.. Keep ’em coming!

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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44 Comments

  1. Mary,

    Glad Thomas Nelson did the right thing and will no longer publish his book due to the fact that it distorts the facts to fit his agenda. Hopefully this will convince at least a few people who might have been susceptible to his propaganda, not to believe what he says.

    1. I’m just glad that there are better people than me whose first instinct is to take pictures of bugs rather than to run away screaming.

  2. Ok, so … I’ve noticed something. And I’ve mentioned this in a couple other comments. But has anyone else noticed that, whenever we get someone in here who is disagreeing with us (generally on the subject of feminism and/or sexism), they almost always start their (usually MRA) diatribe with “Hi [username]!” Or “Hi, there [username]!” Or something similar? This also generally includes some sort of comment on our ~tone~. And of course they are just being so NICE, how dare we get angry at them?!?! Oh, you emotional women, you! “Respectfully yours, MRA Troll.”

    I really, really dislike fake politeness. I’d rather someone just be a straight-up jerk. Ugh.

    1. Well I think that would be fine if they were interested in discussion that involved actually listening to feminists, learning something from them, and having a mind open to change.

      The problem is that generally they come by with the intention of being right no matter what. The other problem is that they come in denying up down left right and into the 4th dimension that sexism doesn’t exist, when it clearly DOES.

      1. Well, I’m just really nothing the weird passive-aggressive thing that seems to happen whenever one of these guys comes in. And they are rarely interested in learning. They are more interesting in mansplainin’ and being overly polite in an attempt to JAQ off all over Skepchik.

        Ew.

      2. And I mean, yeah, but seriously, I’m just noting a pattern. It would be fine, except it’s usually a REALLY BIG CLUE that the (usually male but not always, I’ve noticed!) person is about to act like a passive-aggressive a-hole, all the while passive-aggressively wagging his finger at us because we’re over-emotional bitches who are ruining the atheist movement by demanding to be treated like people instead of sex objects.

        Seriously. As soon as I see a “Hi [nym]” or similar, I sigh, and think, Well … here we go! As of yet, I’ve not been wrong!

        1. It’s because they’re new to the forums, don’t know anybody, and feel the need to introduce themselves.

          I suspect the reason they are all MRA trolls is because everybody else lurks, reads stuff, then comments. They don’t feel new to the board when they post.

          1. I think, too, that they want to come off as polite and “Just Asking Questions”.

        2. “the (usually male but not always, I’ve noticed!) person”

          Problem with the internet, it’s really hard to know. I would not be surprised to learn most of the “women” are in fact men assuming a female persona for whatever reason.

        3. I think there’s likely 2 factors hre.

          1. Many people are bored and therefore get involved in internet discussion for fun. For many people, arguing is the most fun.

          2. I’m sure a lot of guys upon reading headlines like “Woman gets hit on in an elevator, makes it a scandal” they have a knee jerk reaction against it thinking that it’s stupid. No critical thinking involved.

          Combine those two and what do you get? A bored dude who hasn’t thought about the issue beyond a knee jerk reaction here to pick a fight. What do we call that normally? Trolls without self-awareness.

          1. The thought process goes like this.

            1. Guy see article
            2. Guy see word “feminist”, guy with been told this bad word, GUY MAD!!!
            3. Guy read article, guy become JAQoff, and JAQOFF MAD!!!!!! (because guy not understand from guy’s priveleged perspective)
            4. JAQOFF FIND FEMINIST LAIR!!
            5. JAQOFF START JAQING OFF FURIOUSLY!!!!
            6. JAQOFF gets yelled at.
            7. JAQOFF Butthurt.
            8a). JAQOFF Learn Something
            OR
            8b). JAQOFF continue being JAQOFF until banhammer SMASH!!!

  3. Total TMI confession that is related to the Quickies: I am totally right-handed … except while masturbating. Then suddenly, I’m left-handed. It’s kind of strange!

        1. Yep, exactly that, I don’t think it’s necessarily supposed to be the left hand, just the non-dominant one, though.
          However, has anyone here ever woken up at night after accidentally sleeping on their arm for a good long while ? Remember that initial feeling of “Holy shit, my arm is gone/dead !” and how difficult it is, to perform any remotely delicate movements with your arm in that state ?? How anyone would consider trying to masturbate in that state and think that would turn out to be an enjoyable experience is beyond me…

          1. Is it safe to repeatedly compress the nerves in your arm like that?

            If not, how often is too often?

          2. @victoriadashtwenty
            Don’t know if it’s necessarily the compression of nerves. I had some surgery on my hand a couple of years back and in order minimize bleeding during the surgery they tied off my arm and wrapped an elastic band around it to get most of the blood out. The way the arm felt then was quite similar to how it feels after sleeping on it. So it might also be due to reduced blood supply.

        2. Oh yes, my bad Mary. The numb hands are called the stranger, the left hand is called “The Affair”.

    1. I can’t believe I’m admitting this but you’re not alone marilove, I do the same thing. I think it’s because it frees up my right hand to search for porn (again, why am I admitting this)

      Anyway, I think a lot of right-handed people occasionally do certain task with their left hand. Besides the masturbation, I use my left for bowling and shooting pistols, makes me wonder if there are any studies on this kind of thing.

      1. I use my left hand so rarely, I’m surprised it hasn’t shriveled away by now.

        Actually no, I use it for typing a lot, which I just realized.

  4. My brother was left handed. Was left handed because he was discouraged at school to write with his left hand. No ruler accross the knuckles, but detention-work, writing thousands of lines.
    Weird isn’t it. Weirder still that my parents put up with it.
    At football (soccer) he is still a lefty.

      1. Barton does care. That’s why he makes up so many. Anyhow, he claims he has already found another publisher, but, AFAIK, he hasn’t revealed who it is.

        1. Skepotter,

          You may have misunderstood me, but I was specifically talking about the publisher, not Barton.

    1. Okay, I’m confused. This is driving me crazy. According to Christianity, where do people go when they die? Like, right now, where are they?

      Isn’t there a judgement day where we all rise from our graves? Why does everybody seem to believe that but also that there are people in heaven right now?

        1. Matthew 27:53 “And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

          Which, as Christopher Hitchens pointed out, is something you’d think the historians of the day would have noticed, but appparently didn’t.

          1. LOL.

            Someone on The Reasonable Doubts podcast joked that according to the little known Gospel of Thomas, Jesus’ last words on the cross were “Either these curtains go, or I do!”

            Riip.

          2. Apparently the Bible says it both ways, so the different denominations are split on the issue. Unfortunately the people that believe that we will all just lie dead in our graves until Judgement Day are in the minority, which is sad because I wish I could smugly correct people that think their loved ones are watching over them or that this kid went to heaven and came back.

            The majority opinion is actually really silly. Apparently we go to heaven or hell when we die but there’s still a Judgement Day that happens after. It seems like kind of a waste of everybody’s time.

  5. I actually didn’t know that people didn’t know about all of the great stuff that we learned thanks to NASA and the space race. Didn’t know, that is, until I saw Aisha Tyler make jokes about “why is NASA getting 100 million dollars?,” then saw it suggested again in this post.

    Seriously, was I the only person paying attention on field trips to museums?

    1. I wouldn’t have known that NASA was responsible for memory foam if it weren’t for those commercials. I think they need better PR.

      1. The only reason I know about the memory foam is that when I visited a friend in Brazil in ’05, he’d borrowed an apartment in Rio from a millionaire friend who made memory foam for NASA.

      2. To be honest, I don’t know about all of the things that NASA has brought us either, I just know that, through their research, we have tons of “awesome stuff”.

        In light of specificity, there is a good reason for the site. I guess that I am simply satisfied with the answer “a whole lot of things” when I hear the question “what has NASA done for us?”

  6. I’m ambidextrous, but sort of self-taught. I wonder if it’s possible that I became proficient in my left hand just due to force of will and practice, or if I must have had some innate talent/ability to even want to learn it. Does anyone know if it’s possible to become ambidextrous without being born that way? Anyway, it’s really convenient.

  7. So, the book entitled “The Jefferson Lies” is essentially a book of lies about Thomas Jefferson?

    1. I don’t know if they’ll write about it, but if they do, it’ll be like sending up the troll signal.
      Lately it’s been one at a time, I wouldn’t look forward to another mass influx of JAQing and assplaining.

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