Our Strange Time: The ‘Mandela Effect’

Quick: Which one of these is correct? Did the rich man portrayed with top hat on Monopoly games wear a monocle?

As it happens, the answer is the image on the right.

It seems our memories are sometimes skewed. We have confabulated things in such a way that our answer is often the opposite of reality. In this case, we may be admixing the Monopoly man with Mr. Peanut, who has appeared on almost every Planters package, commercial, and advertisement for decades, one of the best-known icons in advertising history.

Both Monopoly and Planters Peanuts have been big alongside each other since the 1930s.

Mr. Peanut - Wikipedia

They call this the “Mandela effect” when a large number of people—especially online—believe the opposite of reality, and it is so named because so many distinctly remember (are sure) that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, when in actuality he was released in 1990 and became president of South Africa in 1994, living until 2013.

A shared false memory.

Quick: does the logo for Fruit of the Loom have a cornucopia?

Did it ever?

Answer: No.

(You can see an in-depth investigation of the claim here, if you want to bother).

So amazing are some of the things we’re sure about yet are not true that, in these convoluted times, conspiracy theories have materialized. It’s why we need the Holy Spirit at each turn. We have been buried in information and misinformation (more on the latter shortly).

There are those who claim that it’s all a “psy-ops” perpetrated by corporate and/or government forces that seek to confuse and mind-control us.

Others take it a wild step farther, saying that it’s a case of alternative or parallel realities (that in one reality, for example, there was a cornucopia).

Interesting stuff.

People swear there was a “Jiffy” peanut butter back in the day, but one can speculate we’re combining Jif with its competitor, Skippy, or simply with the expression, “in a jiffy.”

(It’s just the three letters, “Jif,” not “Jiffy.”)