Your Memory Is a Filthy Liar
The Cracked Podcast #40July 14, 2014
Did you know Michael Jordan is convinced no one ever believed heâ€™d be a great basketball player? It seems inconceivable — just as crazy as that pristine, perfect image of the 1950s so many old white people seem to believe in. Or, the memory millions of Americans have of watching the Challenger explode on TV (even though most of their classrooms didnâ€™t have TVs). Itâ€™s not because MJ, those elderly folks and everyone who attended grade school in the 80s are liars. Itâ€™s because the human memory is fucking awful, and our brains actively make up shit based on things we hear or decide after-the-fact. On todayâ€™s podcast, Cracked editors Jack Oâ€™Brien and Jason Pargin talk about the â€śfilterâ€ť in our brains that makes us remember everything the wrong way.
Thereâ€™s a reason most fatal accidents happen close to home: your eyes arenâ€™t windows to the world. Theyâ€™re crafting a picture of reality based on what youâ€™ve seen before and what you expect. History isnâ€™t as much a list of ‘what happenedâ€™ as it is a collection of lies and misperceptions a bunch of people have passed down over time. Remember Tom Cruise running out on stage and jumping on Oprahâ€™s couch like a crazy man? No you donâ€™t, because thatâ€™s not at all how the actual interview went down! We just want to believe heâ€™s crazy hard enough that we invented a lunatic episode for the man. Remember seeing that first plane hit the tower on 9/11? No you donâ€™t, because that first impact wasnâ€™t recorded on television. Your brain is lying to you, and if you click play youâ€™ll learn exactly how.