I found the picture of a left hand holding a hammer during a Google Images search. I can't even remember what search terms I used, and I haven't been able to find it again since, but it seemed like a perfect image for what my blog was going to be about.
The reason for the left hand is obvious. I'm left-handed, and my viewpoint is on the left side of politics. I recognize that; that's why the blog is called Sinister. It's clever. Really.
But why a hammer?
Well, anyone who knows anything knows that hammers are actually used for building things, for hammering in nails, and putting up structures.
Sinister is a blog that builds arguments, that hammers in ideas, and puts up intellectual structures that, hopefully, stand up to the test of criticism. Sure, sometimes the hammer misses the nail and puts a dent in a wall. Sometimes I get things wrong. But the metaphor of a hammer is apt for what I'm trying to accomplish with this blog.
Hammers have also been used as a revolutionary symbol of the working class, used by communists and socialists for more than a hundred years. I don't shy away from admitting that I am influenced by such thinkers, and my specific choice of a hammer is, at least in part, a tribute to them.
The hammer is not, as some would argue, a symbol of destruction. Indeed it is the opposite - a symbol of construction, the idea that building ideas can lead to building a better world, one that is more just, humane, and free.
That is the explanation of the Sinister logo.
