The Mandela Effect

[UltraBudgie]

Personally, I think this is only a kind of mental block, like that store manager.

It could also be due to corporate policy, because if I remember correctly there was a big kerfuffle regarding Walmart around that time, so I could certainly see managers being instructed to not engage customers at all about how or why their stocking policy changed, in an attempt to control the messaging.

Never attribute to quantum physics, malice, or the download what can redly be explained by simple late-stage capitalist gaslighting.

[UltraBudgie]

More than half of Pennsylvania is north of New York City.  Does that seem right to you?

[CCoburn]

And just to prove the point...  I walked into a Walmart in Goodland, Kansas a couple years ago.  I walked all over the store looking for shotgun shells.  I finally walked up to the sports section manager and asked where the hell the shotgun shells were (dammit!).  This guy looked at me like I was from Mars and said..."Sir, we've NEVER sold ammunition, and I've been a manager here for 15 years.  I can tell you for a FACT, we've never sold anything to do with firearms or ammunition...not ever!".

I used to buy ammo at a Maine Walmart sometime around the early 2000s, and then I went in there one day maybe around 2005 and the guy said we don't sell ammo anymore – still selling guns, but no ammo.

Now, the oddity I'm noticing here is that the timeline makes sense for the Maine location, but not Kansas (apparently). If the manager of the Kansas store was at the Maine store instead and said what he did about not selling ammo for fifteen years, then that would line up fairly accurately with what I remember.

2024 minus "a couple years ago" minus fifteen puts it at 2007, so that timeline sounds about right for my store – right timeline wrong store.

The Google results didn't make a whole lot of sense either from what I remember. It says they stopped selling handgun ammo in 2019 and I could swear it was way before that. I was mostly buying ammo from 2002 - 2007 when I was a member of a shooting range and then only on rare occasions after that.

I remember the guy just saying that "We don't sell ammo anymore.", but nothing about any specific kind of ammo, just "ammo".

I know, much of this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and Google just seems to have made more a mess of things.

[FlyingClayDisk]

Walmarts differ from location to location.  I say this because I know, after the event I noted above, I went into a Walmart here in CO and was able to by trap rounds (12 ga. 2-3/4 #7.5 shot) by the case.  So, even from CO to KS (next door neighbors) their store rules are different. 

I just marveled at how the dude I talked to copped such a serious attitude, like he was astonished I would ask such an idiotic and offensive question...they'd "NEVER" sold it, not ever even one single time in recorded human history...not EVAR!  And, like I noted, we had bought boxes and boxes of 12 ga. shells the previous pheasant season at the same Walmart (ironically, in addition to the reciepts, I also had some of the actual shells in my hunting vest because I hadn't been pheasant hunting since that previous year, late in the year). 

The husband of one of my wife's friends works the night shift at a different Walmart as a stocking manager.  So, I kind of have an idea how Walmart shelf stock works.  I told the guy in the KS Walmart that I'd bet him $100 bucks and a steak dinner that we could go in the back and we'd find shotgun shells in warehouse.  He refused, but if he was so sure it would have meant a free Benjamin and a steak dinner, for him because I was serious.  The wife's friend's husband stock manager had told me "cut-out" stock often remains in the warehouse for years before they get rid of it because there's not really any logistical way to do it...short of throwing it in a dumpster...which doesn't work for the bean counters at all.

[CCoburn]

Walmarts differ from location to location.  I say this because I know, after the event I noted above, I went into a Walmart here in CO and was able to by trap rounds (12 ga. 2-3/4 #7.5 shot) by the case.  So, even from CO to KS (next door neighbors) their store rules are different. 

I just marveled at how the dude I talked to copped such a serious attitude, like he was astonished I would ask such an idiotic and offensive question...they'd "NEVER" sold it, not ever even one single time in recorded human history...not EVAR!  And, like I noted, we had bought boxes and boxes of 12 ga. shells the previous pheasant season at the same Walmart (ironically, in addition to the reciepts, I also had some of the actual shells in my hunting vest because I hadn't been pheasant hunting since that previous year, late in the year). 

The husband of one of my wife's friends works the night shift at a different Walmart as a stocking manager.  So, I kind of have an idea how Walmart shelf stock works.  I told the guy in the KS Walmart that I'd bet him $100 bucks and a steak dinner that we could go in the back and we'd find shotgun shells in warehouse.  He refused, but if he was so sure it would have meant a free Benjamin and a steak dinner, for him because I was serious.  The wife's friend's husband stock manager had told me "cut-out" stock often remains in the warehouse for years before they get rid of it because there's not really any logistical way to do it...short of throwing it in a dumpster...which doesn't work for the bean counters at all.

In retrospect, I probably should have thought better about forming my simple analysis on the words of a Walmart manager especially since they were already in question. I don't know what this particular guys' issue was, but I've definitely seen some oddballs working at Walmart.

I did wonder if the stores operated somewhat individually or as a single entity, but the top of the search results didn't bother elaborate on that with the "When did Walmart stop selling ammunition" criterion.

I don't really care for the place myself, and my visits there would be measured in years. With the driving, parking, and walking it feels more like an expedition than a store. I'd rather pay a couple dollars more for a quick trip and be in and out.

The place can be a lifesaver at times though. I remember this one time a couple years back when me and a friend were finishing up with the install of a new toilet and it came up a little short on reaching the water supply. It was like maybe mid-evening or a little after and most places were either closed or closing, but guess what? Walmart was still open, and in their hardware section they even had this like 18" universal extender hose which as it turned out was just what I needed.

And speaking of pheasants. We were taking the backroads to a specialty soda shop last week and on this one road with a moderate incline as soon as we hit the crest there had to be at least ten of them. The speed limit was only 15 (luckily) and I was doing around 20 so I (barely) had enough time to react which was like "Whoa WTF!!". I kept asking my friend "Did I hit one?"; "Did I hit any of those?", and she was like "No, you're good" as we continued on our merry way to the pop shop – can't get soda like that at Walmart (place is high as hell though).

[CCoburn]

Every Time?


What about "everytime"? I keep getting corrected on this one. I mean, it makes sense. We got "sometime", but just not "everytime". Maybe it's not, but I think it should be, and if not, I apparently just never learned that it's a phrase and not a word in the past forty years, or maybe I just forgot, like it's a sign of getting older or something.

[UltraBudgie]

Every Time?


What about "everytime"? I keep getting corrected on this one. I mean, it makes sense. We got "sometime", but just not "everytime". Maybe it's not, but I think it should be, and if not, I apparently just never learned that it's a phrase and not a word in the past forty years, or maybe I just forgot, like it's a sign of getting older or something.

Every time I think I've heard everything strange about everyday English, I'm reminded that everywhere one looks, inconsistencies abound and everyone is in some way confused. It's understandable.

[CCoburn]

Every time I think I've heard everything strange about everyday English, I'm reminded that everywhere one looks, inconsistencies abound and everyone is in some way confused. It's understandable.

This is the Mandela Effect. Inconsistencies? Absolutely. Confusion? Maybe not so much. Confusion implies a slight rigor of mental turmoil, and that's not what I was feeling at the time. With me it was just something that ran parallel with an observation in passing (until now).

A much better example of "confusion" and "mental turmoil" would be in replying to a post that you are in a state of unpreparedness to reply i.e. are confused(?):

 

edit; thank you very interesting and much to think about will follow up later rather than make a low effort reply

"effort" fuels confusion (I didn't exert any); "much to think about will follow up later"

No follow-up? Too much "effort"? Maybe got "confused", relegated, or simply just don't care – I don't know and really don't care either way.

And thanks for your "understanding", I guess, but these snarky and condescending remarks of yours stating others' confusion and sarcastic offering of 'understanding' have nothing to do with this thread and are nothing but some crafty passive aggressive manner in which to insult, enflame, or annoy someone in a way that circumvents moderator intervention.

I would usually just opt to ignore this type of behavior but occasionally I don't and have been noticing an emerging pattern here lately with this.

Okay, I'm done with this whole "confusion" and "understanding" thing for now, and maybe can resume other forms of writing here on my next visit.

[UltraBudgie]

Okay, I'm done with this whole "confusion" and "understanding" thing for now, and maybe can resume other forms of writing here on my next visit.

My apologies. I was merely trying to use as many compound "every-" words as I could, to explore the issue. I didn't mean anything personal by it. In fact I had to look up the list myself, to see where I was "confused".

Here is an interesting idea, then (to me, anyway): I think that natural languages, like English, are not regular in grammar and structure for a deeper reason. That, in fact, they wouldn't work as well for humans if they were self-consistent and always followed the same rules. That some ambiguity and "confusion" is not a flaw of the language, but a benefit. I'm not sure how to really express why this is, but I think it somehow adds depth to the human experience, or something. This, for example, shows why languages like Esperanto, which are artificially consistent, have never really become popular.

This applies to spoken language, too, the ambiguity of homophones and regional patois can be hilarious, and confusing. My father once ordered a side of fries at a restaurant in the south, and they brought him rice.

As far as the Mandela effect, there do seem to be several effects that are unexplainable. For example, I've gotten well-educated literary fans freaked out by mentioning that "dilemma" is not spelled "dilemna":

[UltraBudgie]

The Great Vowel Shift was a series of pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s[1] (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this massive vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels altered. Some consonant sounds also changed, specifically becoming silent; the term Great Vowel Shift is occasionally used to include these consonantal changes.
...
The causes of the Great Vowel Shift are unknown[6]: 68  and have been a source of intense scholarly debate; as yet, there is no firm consensus. The greatest changes occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries, and their origins are at least partly phonetic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

I have a theory that this was due to an early version of the Mandela Effect, or something like it. A large enough population "timeline shifting" from a world where English is pretty much the same, but pronounced differently, bringing their "radically new" voicing with them. Could this have happened? Other more "scholarly" theories for the Vowel Shift are vague and implausible. If we posit that the Mandela Effect operates "within the cracks" of reality, where a change can occur but yield no definitive proof, then it would make sense that the further back in time we look, where record-keeping and persistent recording was less prevalent, the larger the possible changes could be. Many of the clues we have about pronunciation are vague and interpolated, derived from observations of what poets at the time thought rhymed. We've seen Mandela Effect changes in English spelling, pronunciation, grammar, of minor scope -- could this be the largest one of all?