See title. For those who don’t know, the Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred. It’s named after Nelson Mandela because a significant number of people remembered him dying in prison in the 1980s, even though he actually passed away in 2013.

I’m curious to hear about your personal experiences with this phenomenon. Have you ever remembered an event, fact, or detail that turned out to be different from reality? What was it and how did you react when you found out your memory didn’t align with the facts? Does it happen often?

58 points

Who the fuck remembers Mandela dying in prison??? The man was resilience itself!

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8 points

Enough people that there’s this effect named after this happening

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37 points

Like 12 idiots on the Internet who then decided to never shut the fuck up about it.

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17 points

I know!

He was constantly in the papers in the 1990s, major figure, every mac madra knew he was alive, where do they get this shite.

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4 points

Yeah, I never understood that either. He was the president of South Africa from 1994-1999. Yes, he kept a lower profile in the 2000s, but I remember even as a kid/teen seeing articles and photos of him in the news. Bizarre.

Now the Berenstain Bears one, I understand. At the same time, I just chalk that up to spelling. For what reason would I need to know how to spell “Berenstain?”

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2 points

Now the Berenstain Bears one, I understand. At the same time, I just chalk that up to spelling. For what reason would I need to know how to spell “Berenstain?”

I had one like this where I was shocked to learn there was never a band called Chumbawumba; they are called Chumbawamba and have been all along.

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4 points

Probably confusion with Steve Biko explains it.

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1 point

US History doesn’t like to focus on men like him

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18 points

I remember there was an AskLemmy question on the Mandela effect, but a week later we all realized it was just a dream.

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3 points

I’m contacting you from an alternate timeline to tell you that I’m still angry

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1 point

Did your timeline manage to fuck up covid less? How do I immigrate? What stocks should I buy?

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4 points

I just found out that you can’t take someone’s lead in order to behave like they are behaving, you can only follow their lead.

I thought that taking someone’s lead, “I’m taking their lead”, is an actual expression, while apparently it is not.

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3 points

Taking someone’s lead sounds like a British saying indicating the opposite of following someone’s lead. It sounds like you’re taking someone’s leash in your hands and directing them where to go.

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2 points

I’m not sure, but that makes sense.

I’ll have to take your lead on that.

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4 points
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“Take the lead” is certainly an expression used in the UK to denote guiding people, as in “I’ll take the lead”. I assume both come from ballroom dancing.

I’m sure it’s used elsewhere but it may also simply be a conflation of the two.

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6 points

It may not be the original idiom, but it’s definitely something people say. If the core expressions are “(I) take the lead” and “(you) follow my lead,” that lends itself easily to a merge: you take my lead. It’s not as common as the originals but it’s definitely out there. It will stick around because it’s really easy to unambiguously infer what it means in context.

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2 points

I agree that it’s used, I’m sure that if we looked in movie scripts or novels, we would find examples of that phrase, but I can’t find a single dictionary that agrees that the phrase is a legitimate phrase, and that’s what really boggled my mind.

Boggled and boondoggled over here.

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2 points

Just looked up “take my lead” on playphrase.me to check, it shows up in a couple movies, even a Star Wars.

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1 point
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Deleted by creator
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11 points

A witch turned me into a newt.

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5 points

Glad you got better.

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1 point

Maybe he didn’t…

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