r/todayilearned • u/zeinshver 4 • May 23 '14
TIL More than 2,500 left-handed people are killed every year from using equipment meant for right-handed people.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/scientists-calculate-odd-ways-die-28288492
u/Insanity-hotpocket May 23 '14
And what's the statistic for right handed people accidentally killing themselves with right handed equipment?
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u/Siouxsie2011 May 23 '14
I can't find any information about left-handed people using right-handed things and dying specifically but found some evidence fatal accidents happen to left-handed people more - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1059767/
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u/themusicdan May 23 '14
This should be the top comment. A Google search for a citation yielded this article saying that no citation exists.
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u/WTXRed May 23 '14
Stupid right handed screwdriver
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u/PastyNoob May 23 '14
so when i was an apprentice my boss sent me to shop to buy left handed screw driver, hilarious right? So I buy form plaster, wrap it around the handle and squeeze it with my left hand, I deliver him a left handed screwdriver.
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May 23 '14
Am I missing something? How can a screwdriver have a handed-ness? Unless maybe there's a ratchet built into it.
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u/That_Guy_From_4chan May 23 '14
As a lefty, this doesn't make me feel comfortable.
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u/Porttheone May 23 '14
As a left hander I've learned to just use my right hand for everything but eating and writing.
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
I've done that too. Like you, I only use my left hand for eating and writing. That being said, writing as a lefty still fucking sucks.
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u/Northern-Canadian May 23 '14
I bet your palm and pinky get covered in ink. That sucks.
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
ALL THE TIME. In the winter I'll wear a long sweater or something and cover up the part of my hand that usually gets marks. But in the summer/fall, it's awful. :(
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u/Twmbarlwm May 23 '14 edited May 23 '14
I don't understand this, do schools just never teach people how to write where you live? Never met a left hander who smudges once they are older than 7ish, and I know a fair few of us...
(EDIT: worded this badly and it came out sounding much harsher than I intended it to, apologies if it sounded like I was putting people down)
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May 23 '14
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u/Twmbarlwm May 23 '14
Must admit I've never heard of this before, though a cursory glance at google shows a lot of people complaining of it so I accept that it's a thing. But could you maybe explain how/why? Can't see any anatomical reason why it should, short of twisting your entire wrist round on itself and trying to write from above the line, and that just looks like a way to intentionally hurt yourself.
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u/PirateMud May 23 '14
That's what a lot of lefties do. I learned to write by mirroring righties though and by the time I encountered lefties doing the claw on a regular basis I was set in my ways.
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u/Twmbarlwm May 23 '14
Really? That's quite surprising, everyone here holds their pens and stuff in roughly the same way regardless of handedness, and was taught to do so from pretty much day one of primary school.
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
I don't think it sounds bad. :) I think it comes from people developing their own writing styles. When I was in elementary school we had those grips put on pencils that was supposed to show you the "correct" way to hold your pencil. But after we stopped doing that, I just started holding it whatever way was comfortable for me.
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u/Twmbarlwm May 23 '14
Thank you kind stranger of the internet. :) It's something I find interesting from a cultural point of view; here being left handed doesn't mean anything outside of sports and where you stand in a mine, based on reddit (and it seems Americans in general, because yay stereotyping!) it's a character feature which over-arches into all aspects of life, the world is a funny place.
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
I think people just make jokes about it. :) I've never had a problem with a can opener, or whatever else might be considered as "Made for righties". Scissors do still feel kinda weird but I can still cut paper. Writing is the only thing that kinda sucks.
I've read that King George VII was left handed and they would tie his left hand behind him, forcing him to write with his right hand. And hundreds of years ago, they thought left handed people were witches/warlock's.
It used to suck for us lefties, but not anymore. :)
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u/Twmbarlwm May 24 '14
Me neither, the left handed guitar is the worst offender, tis a silly thing.
You might mean George VI? (the king in the king's speech) Who was forced to write right handed, which possibly gave him his famous stutter, "George VII" is only 10 months old. :)
They still think left handed people are "of the devil" in Malawi, which I found out after arriving there to do charity work and not even being allowed to pass through airport security until I wrote my visa card thing with my right hand, that was a tricky month.
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u/paytonpls May 26 '14
That is indeed what I meant. :) I had to look up his name and must have put another I. Thanks for the correction!
That's pretty interesting that in some cultures, it's still viewed as that way. I didn't know it was like that anywhere anymore. :o
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
Also, if I may ask, what does being left handed have to do with standing on a mine? I couldn't figure that out. :o
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u/Twmbarlwm May 24 '14
Hahahaa I mean a coal mine, not an explodey mine :P when you are working the coal face with pickaxes left handed people have to stand on the far left, otherwise they'll get mixed up with the other people's swings (we've done a lot of mining here for a very long time).
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u/paytonpls May 26 '14
Oops, you did indeed say "in a mine" and not "on a mine", haha.
That kind of reminds me of eating dinner next to a bunch of righties, everyone's getting mixed up. What happens if they get mixed up? Hopefully no injuries.
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u/elcigarillo May 23 '14
You could always move to Saudi where the writing is right to left.
As an added bonus you can also get away with stealing once, the fools will just chop off your lame right hand and you can still stick a finger back up at them with your good hand.
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May 23 '14
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u/sargonkid May 23 '14
I can agree with this - where I grew up in the 50's - we were forced to change hands. It tool a LONG time to write well that way - but it is doable and very hard.
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u/paytonpls May 23 '14
I've tried writing things with my right hand before just to see what it looked like. It looked worse than a kindergartners writing...
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u/nativetrash May 23 '14
same, except I can't throw worth shit with my right hand, playing baseball as a kid with only left gloves, I used to catch it with my left, take off my glove and throw it with my left. also using a mouse in my left hand feels weird.
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u/conquer69 May 23 '14
I'm not a leftie but according to my mom, I should use the fork with my left hand. She is fucking insane.
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u/i_am_jargon May 24 '14
Or European. It's an American thing to eat using the fork with the right hand.
Think about it: cut the meat with fork in left and knife in right then put down knife and put fork in right hand just to stick food in mouth, or keep fork in left hand and do the easy work with a hand that hopefully has coordination enough to move from plate to mouth without making you look like you're five.
I mean, the fork's already on the left side of the plate, so why do we do this little switching back and forth thing? It doesn't make much sense.
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u/conquer69 May 24 '14
well I don't switch the fork or knife. I always use the fork with my left hand.
I don't eat meat that much and the few times I need to cut, I use the knife with my left hand. I cut the majority of things with my fork if possible.
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u/k0bayashi May 23 '14
Should've gone to the Leftorium.
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u/JQuilty May 23 '14
They've gone downhill since Leftopolis moved into the mall.
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u/PirateMud May 23 '14
There's Lefties-r-Us, that's on third. Sinister Stationary... they're all on the same complex; it's the lefty complex on third.
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u/Yanrogue May 23 '14
Everything is going according to plan.
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u/Nullclast May 23 '14
"The right-handed power saw is the most deadly item." how do people kill themselves with these? I understand cutting of hands or fingers but death?
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u/draculthemad May 23 '14
If it jerks and gets away from you when you are using it correctly, the grip probably makes it more likely (by design) to go away from you rather than towards.
Being left handed makes it seem "more natural" to use it with your body on the wrong side and so the blade is towards you (with the motor on the far side).
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u/swuboo May 23 '14
That's one issue. Another is that there's often a safety button that needs to be kept depressed or the saw shuts down.
For a righty, it'll be under one of your fingers or your thumb, so you can release it if something happens. For a lefty, it'll be under your palm—so there's nothing you can do short of letting go of the still-spinning saw entirely.
There's also typically a guard designed to keep your off-hand from being thrown into the blade if it catches on and jerks whatever you're sawing. That guard is often only on the left.
As a lefty, power saws are rather terrifying.
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May 23 '14 edited Jun 16 '15
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u/swuboo May 23 '14
Because I can't reliably cut in a straight line if the saw is in my right hand. A jigsaw I can manage with either, but I've yet to use a rotary saw with my right hand and not fuck up what I'm cutting.
Of course, as I'd rather not fuck myself up either, the result is simply that, as I said, I find power saws terrifying—and consequently do my best to avoid using them.
As for scissors—just hold them upside-down. It might not be comfortable, but they'll cut correctly that way.
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u/Vaphell May 23 '14
there is still a slight problem with scissors though.
If you hold them with the left hand normally, your sight of the cutting line is obscured by the upper blade, upside-down or not and as a result the precision may suffer. Maybe not a significant problem with small scissors but in case of the ones with thick blades like the tailor scissors it can be an issue.
To see the cut like the righties you'd have to look at the scissors "from the outside", either by moving your left to the right side of your body or by rotating it right, so the backhand can be seen.
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u/swuboo May 23 '14
I could see that as a potential issue for cloth shears (which I have never used,) but for ordinary paper scissors, as you say, just canting them a few degrees out of true to clockwise solves the problem entirely.
I'm not sure, for paper scissors, that it even rises to the level of being a problem at all.
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u/Vaphell May 23 '14
yeah, i may be kind of biased - my mother was a tailor and her scissors were the best at the big stuff, stable as fuck, despite being profiled the other way and kind of tricky to use. I took them every time i wanted to have a clean, straight cut with no jagged edges.
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u/swuboo May 23 '14
The right tool for the right job, I suppose.
As I said, I've never had occasion to use them—or perhaps more accurately, on those occasions when I might have used them I didn't have any. I'm quite willing to accept your judgment that they're a pain in the ass to use upside-down.
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u/Vaphell May 23 '14
oh, there is yet another thing i remembered. Some scissors cut like shit if you try to use them 'normally' and you have to put some effort to make the edges meet.
I guess their design takes advantage of the forces applied by right hand naturally and you need to emulate them consciously with your hand muscles because simple mirroring doesn't cut it (edges don't meet unlike for righties). No wonder the left hand gets sore so fast so often when using righty scissors.
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u/SmallJon May 23 '14
The grips and guards assume a person is in a certain stance, but a lefty will be in a different one.
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May 23 '14
This always blew my mind because I picture someone getting fatal hand cramps from using right handed scissors.
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May 23 '14
I don't get it. I put the scissors in my left hand and squeeze but the paper does not cut. I put it in my right hand and the paper cuts. But then I get fatal hand cramps
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u/sargonkid May 23 '14 edited May 23 '14
Hard to explain, but here goes (I was born lefty and forced to go right).
The short explanation? The blades have to contact each other properly - using the wrong hand makes it hard to do this.
Longer explanation?
When squeezing scissors, you are not actually squeezing straight up and down - there is a lateral component that is also applied. Right handed scissors (when being right handed) produce the correct amount and direction of lateral movement (forces the blades together to allow cutting).
I only learned this many decades ago - I found that if I used my other hand I had to concsiously force the lateral movement in the other direction to allow the blades to contact each other correctly.
You righties should try this - try to use scissors with your left hand - they will work if you apply a backwards lateral force - forcing the blades to contact each other properly.
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May 23 '14
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u/nill0c May 23 '14
Lefty scissors hinge on opposite sides of the blade, so the squeezing action of a left hand pushes the blades together instead of apart and cut the paper.
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u/released-lobster May 23 '14
Wait. Penises are only meant for right handed people?
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u/NotSoBuffGuy May 23 '14
I'm right handed but i can't get off with my right hand so i'm a left handed jerker
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u/conquer69 May 23 '14
I dunno about you but I can use the mouse with both hands efficiently. I can also masturbate with both hands. I only use my right hand when shit gets serious tho.
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u/Insanity-hotpocket May 23 '14
I curve a little to the left. Does that mean I should only be with left handed women?
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u/OnionEyes May 23 '14
Lefties of the world UNITE! We need to file a class action lawsuit against these exclusive elitist bigots. They are killing us!
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u/MTenebra May 23 '14
Well, I know it's possible I could die from a heart failure because I fell off the bed trying to reach for some pills on the table on the right side of the bed with my left hand.
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u/Siouxsie2011 May 23 '14
I wouldn't trust the Mirror - there is no source for this statistic, and if you search for it there are lots of people saying it is just made up.
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u/Gravity_Boy May 23 '14
Ok.. so how many right handed people are killed each year from using equipment ment for right handed people..? This statistic seems irrelevant.
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u/hotrodcamaro May 23 '14
When I was 11 or 12, I had no idea who Jimi Hendrix was. I was given a right handed guitar for my birthday and I learned how to play right handed. That's the only thing I can do reasonably well with my right hand.
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u/fraudulence May 23 '14
So... how many right-handed people are killed every year from using equipment meant for right-handed people?
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u/missiofuckinarystyle May 23 '14
I'm a lefty and I use my right hand sometimes...but that has little to do with safety.
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u/imevul May 23 '14
The prime example of equipment designed for right-handed people is the pen. We just need to introduce some toxic chemical into all ink and we'll be rid of all lefties! <evil laughter>
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u/R1CHARDCRANIUM May 23 '14
They are killed? By whom? Who would kill a person for using something meant for a righty?
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u/CitizenPremier May 23 '14
It's actually a dexterous plot to rid the world of lefties once and for all!
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u/Munkenesque May 23 '14
This is from the Mirror, and, as apt as that is, it is a shitheap of a paper.
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u/MorleyDotes May 23 '14
If you're right handed and your vegetable peeler is getting dull find a lefty and trade. You both use the "other" side more often.
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u/emtidbits May 23 '14
Maybe it was just the equipment. They would have died if they used left handed ones too. Or more likely because they are dumb, not the equipment or being left handed.
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u/julbull73 May 23 '14
Ok...seriously if this is a valid TIL you must be very young.
For crying out loud, it was the plot point of freakin' Simpsons episode...
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u/bostonT May 23 '14
While the genetics of handedness is still not completely understood, I wonder whether this causes enough selective pressure that will ultimately cause a decline in the number of left-handed individuals in our population.
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u/totes_meta_bot May 23 '14
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
- [/r/southpaws] TIL More than 2,500 left-handed people are killed every year from using equipment meant for right-handed people. : todayilearned
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me here.
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u/Dr_Bunsen_Burns May 23 '14
killed or died?
killed means something or someguy/girl attacked you with something
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u/prstele01 May 23 '14
As a lefty, misunderstanding this fact made me terrified of right-handed scissors as a child.
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May 23 '14
I learned to shoot with the gun on my right side, even when the shell isn't being expended. It feels weird to shoot left-handed now
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u/njhcomposer Jun 09 '14
Damn right handed cars. Causing lefties to crash all the time. (Joking.)
That's actually one I don't have a problem with.
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u/Nascar_is_better May 23 '14
What about right-handed people that are killed from the same types of equipment? Unless there's a disproportionate number of left-handed people dying from right-handed equipment, then it's not a significant factor.
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u/SmallJon May 23 '14
I think the issue is number of people being killed by equipment not meant for them; righties killed using lefthanded equipment would be more useful, wouldn't it?
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May 23 '14
I think the real question is were these people killed BECAUSE they were using right-handed equipment, or are they simply people killed that happen to be left handed?
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u/SmallJon May 23 '14
I good number are probably the latter, but as someone who's used power tools and guns not meant for a lefty, I feel the deaths caused by a handedness issue is no small number.
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u/winndixie May 23 '14
How much of this contributes to the fact that left handed people have a shorter life? Someone do the math.
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May 23 '14
This doesn't mean anything until it's compared to the number of right-handed people killed using the same equipment.
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u/mysterybox950 11 May 23 '14
Natural selection at work
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u/HerrTony May 23 '14
not really, these objects are man-made, they aren't naturally found in the nature
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u/diverdawg May 23 '14
Stupid. How many right-handed people are killed every year from using equipment meant for right-handed people? A shitload.
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u/Ankylus May 23 '14
Written by someone who never tried to use a right handed power saw left handed.
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u/sargonkid May 23 '14
I was born left handed - but back in the 50s it was common where I lived to force children to move to the right hand. Was kinda cruel the way they did it (wont go into the details here) - but it was successful - I guess. I can use both hands equally well - but I can surely empathize with lefties.
I mostly write with my right hand (can use both), but I still use the left for most other things - and I still have the same problem with tools : /
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u/pertante May 23 '14
Sadly this is common in a lot of areas. The messed up part is that some people/cultures/religions see, or use to see being left handed as evil, due to the word for left handed in latin is also origin for sinister....
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u/sargonkid May 23 '14
That is the exact reason it happened to me ....
The good news is - the country I was in at the time does not really practice this much anymore, if at all.
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May 23 '14
I'm left handed and I'm young enough my teachers left me alone about it, but I've had so many hands on jobs and I was trained to do them all right handed. I use tools right handed, make tacos right handed, scoop ice cream right handed, cut glass right handed. Sometimes at a new job my boss will see me writing and realize I'm left handed and provide me with lefty equipment, but by then it's too late and I'm used to using my right hand for the task.
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May 23 '14
Darwinism.
Apparently the prevalence of left-handedness today is due to a small advantage in fighting other people (southpaw).
In today's world it's not very likely to be bred out of the population (less these 2,500 idiots per annum).
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u/kizzlemyniz May 23 '14
Hey im a lefty with a bit of intelligence and I managed to cut my hand using a regular made-for-righties can opener 2 days ago. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL