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ghafflast Friday at 6:25 PM1 replyview on HN

Past some point, even people with some first-hand knowledge may not know the whole truth, filter things through their own biases, may just misremember, etc.


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WalterBrightlast Friday at 6:39 PM

My dad kept a diary during his combat tour in WW2. Decades later, he read it and was shocked to discover that it did not quite line up with his memories.

When I prepared a "history of D" for a paper a while back, I went looking through all my documents and emails and the D forum history looking to pin things down. I, too, discovered that my memories didn't match the facts as well as I wished it did.

Memory is a funny thing.

One should always be skeptical of accounts written long after the fact. I sometimes wonder how much of our written history is false. I support statutes of limitations because of this.