Dawkins describes trans ID as a meme

[nythbran2]

Very surprised he didn't say this year's earlier (or did I miss it?). Still an unpleasant man though. www.thetimes.com/article/3f4adf27-3fb8-463a-9c1c-3a90ba605b2f?shareToken=0f280c08e52b86d1cd6b0cd7a3a7b3ba

If everyone has a 'gender identity' then we are all qualified to speak on the matter.

If a 'gender identity' is something that only some are born with, can't be measured, observed, or described, and on which subject only those who believe are qualified to speak, then this is a faith that the population as a whole can not be expected to honour with any more respect or weight than, say, astrology, or chakra balancing.

There's nothing wrong with believing in chakras and exercising that belief.

But the NHS should have no part in it, and the rest of the populace cannot be any longer attacked or derided for failing to agree that they need to identify their blocked chakras and support children in taking unlicensed medications to realign their chakras and in many instances, go on to have body parts surgically removed to conform to their inner feelings about their personal chakra alignment.

Yes, it really is that simple.

And this is what I find surprising and alarming about the "humanist" and atheist support for gender identity ideology.

disappointing as well

ooh, has anyone accused Dawkins of being 'far right' or getting ££££ from evangelical churches?

if not why not

It's always interested me that some people, almost always left handed, set up their guitar the other way round - but with a standard "right handed" guitar, if you are using a plectrum, it's the left hand that does the more complicated stuff requiring "dexterity". Right handed guitarists playing a standard guitar develop their left hand skills. So why would a left handed person not just accept the advantage they have in playing a standard guitar?

My father often talked about a dose of pseudo religion being effective at inoculating people from the real thing - which for him was Christianity. And Dawkins nearly always seemed to be debunking fundamentalism, when in this country fundamentalists are a minority within Christians. From the point of view of many Christians, Dawkins has only really knocked down straw men.

Of course, there are left footers as well as left handers. It can be an advantage in football, as can being able to use both feet equally well.

I don’t think anyone has ever castigated football players or other sportsmen and women for ambidexterity in hands or feet.

It may have had something to do with the Latin for left and right, sinister and dexter. Did the Romans see left-handedness as associated with negative characteristics, or did the association come later as English developed? And is the same negative association of "left" there in other languages with Latin roots?

I haven't read the full thread but there are major problems with your data here. Assuming this is British adults - many would not have been literate in the 19th century so would not have automatically known if they were right or left handed (as is conventional, I'm assuming you are referencing which hand one writes with). Some people have a much stronger hand dominance - see the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory for details. So being right handed for tool use may not translate to writing, and I would really question the data in your graph - I'd love to see the source publications. Further, I'd question how if those changes over time are meaningful- meta analysis in 2020 (doi.org/10.1037/bul0000229) found prevalence of left handedness between 9.3% and 18.1% depending on the criteria used. The authors gave an overall estimate of 10.6%. So very wide variations in prevalence depending on criteria used. Your graph looks very simplistic in context.

@DadJoke You've helpfully posted a chart of something presenting at well above its natural rate for a period of years because of social pressures.

I think the superstition was that the Devil lived on your left shoulder. But the word sinister got it's connotations from that, not the other way round.

Some scripts are written from right to left, right handedness would be messy with those, that's an intriguing thought.

Some scripts are written from right to left, right handedness would be messy with those

My primary education was in the 1950s and it was explained to my left handed friend that it would be easier for her to write with her right hand when she moved from using pencil to pen and ink. Many methods of teaching in those days would now be considered unkind or counterproductive, but I think this came from practical need.
Nibbed dip pens and inkwells were disastrous for “clumsy” children - those who might now be considered dyspraxic. We had a day at the end of the year devoted to cleaning our classroom, much of which was taken up with removing ink stains from desks with wire wool.

And? Seems fine to me. Why not?

It would be interesting to know if there are differences in technique to account for that.

I think the idea that it's necessary for people to write with their natural handedness is a bit overblown. It might take a bit more practice, but people can learn to see their less dominant hand for all kinds of things. Many people use their left hand for their fork, or for many musical instruments both hands need real dexterity. A lot of left handers just learn to play guitar in the usual way, because eit's too much bother to always use a guitar set up for a left hander. And people who lose use of their writing hand generally just learn to write with the other one.

Yes. But in my opinion the standard setup of a guitar is easier for a left hander to learn, at least in the early stages. You can get a reasonable sound out of a guitar with the simplest of right hand technique, so it's usually the left hand which people concentrate on at first. Just one of those oddities of common practice.

When drawing with soft pencil or charcoal you need to lift your hand slightly so the lines don't smudge under your hand and maybe move your hand from the shoulder rather than the wrist, bit more tiring.

I once nursed a little girl , ten years old or so , who had amniotic banding syndrome . Her right arm was missing just below her elbow.
Although she was accustomed to writing and drawing with her left hand she was clearly naturally right-handed .
Heck of a lovely kid too .

Yup.

It's odd though - no one thinks right handed or other people are somehow damaged by making them learn an instrument in a way that doesn't fit their hand preference, lots of instruments can't be changed in any case.

The issue with having people switching for writing seems to have been that the teachers were mean, not that there was any real problem with it in itself.

Ever seen you tube videos of Rajacenna Van Dam?

(very last derail - as you were 🙂)

Jimi Hendrix played better left handed than an army of right handed players.

I have always been struck - particularly since it's now technically trivial - by the fact there is no left handed keyboard setup.

And a typical drumkit is handed. (Since drummers are).

Since handedness is innate, presumably there is a genetic component ?

The majority use their left hand for their fork (unless USian) since the knife is held in the dominant hand. Knife to the right, fork to the left. My late DH was left-handed and played ping-pong and cricket as a left-hander; he also wrote with his left hand, but he used his cutlery in standard fashion, the fork in his left hand - and watched with horror some of his grandchildren putting their fork in their right hand and attempting to cut food with their left hand, when they were right-handed. That really looked cack-handed, and meant they ate awkwardly.

The majority use their left hand for their fork (unless USian) since the knife is held in the dominant hand.

I'm generally right handed, but for reasons unknown use my cutlery left handed. DM had zero truck with "accepted wisdom" on almost everything to do with bringing up children and certainly wouldn't have stood for anyone trying to "correct me".

I corrected my children, or rather I taught them to hold their knife in their right hand and their fork in the left, which is accepted practice, and also how cutlery is laid for a formal meal. I watch some of my step-grandchildren using their knife in their left hand - they obviously find it awkward and can't understand why they are having a problem, but no-one has ever shown them the proper way to hold a knife and fork. Like holding a pen (another horror, these days, with people holding a pen in their fist) once you do it the wrong way it sticks and is very hard to correct.

Shrug.

I'm as graceful with my way of eating as anyone doing it the other way round.

Same with using a mouse - and I had t teach myself that because of RSI. I also had to teach myself to write left handed (same reason). Now that is legible but clearly "distressed" 😀

Many years ago, I had a chance to do archery. I instinctively picked the bow up "left handed". Despite being right handed. Which I imagine a pre natal scan would have picked up. If they existed in the dark ages 😆