**Balthisar **, I am going to assume (for the moment) that you were doing a facetious riff on “lefties are hostile,” but we really don’t want to see any displays of anger and, particularly, no threats in General Questions.
'K?
[ /Moderator Mode ]
It’s widely realized that left-handedness is the result of diabolical influences, and there exists no doubt that it is the result of the sinful nature of man. However, learned scholars agree that it is doctrinally erroneous to assume that a left-handed person is necessarily evil; while it may be a mark of a contract with Satan, in other cases the mark is left by the sin of the father or mother, and in some sad cases, the mark is born by a child who is the victim of a curse, placed by a witch upon an entirely innocent victim.
The influence of Satan is subtle, and he leaves no footsteps when he walks the earth. Many left-handed people suffer their affliction through no fault of their own, and these poor souls must be regarded with pity rather than hatred. Examine the left-handed person’s body for the telltale marks of contracture with Lucifer before condemning him.
Left-handers are disproportionately violent if and only if violent people are disproportionately left-handed, no? The former does not imply that the majority of violent people are left-handed, but it does imply that violent people are more likely to be left-handed than are people from the general population.
In the past, I’ve also read that left-handed people are more likely to die of industrial accidents, with the suggestion that it is attributable to the making of machinery/tools to suit right-handed people. Unfortunately I like a cite for this. Is anyone else familiar with this?
As a note, I gotta say as a lefty, while reading your list I was feeling like a “marked” woman who may not make it out of my 30s.
Darwin lives!
If a violent population has a disproportionate number of left-handers, it doesn’t mean that left-handers are disproportionately violent. It means that they are disproportionately successful.
Uh, no, it’s not self-defeating. It’s describing the potential forces which would lead for an equilibium of left and right handers. It’s describes the same thing that any other dynamic equilibrium sitation would describe.
Dude: I didn’t post that.
actually… SHE was… 
…we actually had to get a DNA test done after we split because she wasn’t sure who the father was. :mad:
So i guess that actually proves your theory correct :eek:
Jeez man, sorry! I thought I was just making a joke, didn’t mean to bring up things best left alone. My condolences.
On the other hand, it’s always nice to have one’s theory vindicated.b 
Okay, just for those moderators that don’t know me since I’ve been here in late 2000, yes, it was just me, being silly.
Uh, no, because the dynamic equilibrium that is kinda-sorta described in the study is by definition unstable.
Right. Or at least that’s one explanation, and the one that the authors of the study seem to be favoring. But the post that I (not CynicalGabe) was responding to doesn’t discuss that possibility, and the two “alternatives” that it does mention are actually equivalent.
Not true. It is, or at lest plausibly could be, a classic case of negative frequency-dependent selection. At 27% lefties, people might be less practiced at fighting against lefties by exactly enough to make up for the health problems associated with left-handedness. This would be a stable equilibrium; if the frequency rose a bit, say to 28%, the fitness of lefties would go down and their frequency would follow, and if the frequency dropped a bit the fitness of lefties would go up and their frequency would rise.
from years of school-yard & hockey related fighting experience, i can say that yes, lefties are generally more successful scrappers (all else being equal) though i’ve seen nothing to suggest they are more inherently violent in personality than righties.
us ambidextrous folks otoh, you’d better keep an eye on. we’re crazybad mofos.
I am calm. I am completely relaxed. I am incapable of violence.
SERENITY NOW!!!
Being discriminated against in everything from scissors to ATMs to guesbooks, my word this leftie is feeling fucking violent!
Indeed. I was clearly confused in more ways than one.
As a side note, it has been taken for granted in this thread that left-handers suffer disproportionate rates of certain diseases (like those mentioned in the OP). However, the scientific jury is not yet in on whether this is true (with the apparent exception of autism). Cite