This is Hidden Brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
There's an iconic episode of the TV show Seinfeld where the character George muses
about a woman who treated him poorly.
She took advantage of his romantic interest in her, treated him like trash, and then discarded him.
George begins fantasizing to his friend Jerry Seinfeld about what he would tell the woman
if he met her again.
He would remind her of all the ways she treated him.
Like dirt.
He would stand up for himself.
He would insist that she respect his dignity and apologize.
Since this is comedy, George, of course,
runs into the woman shortly thereafter at a social gathering.
Instead of being brave and forthright, he is meek and obsequious.
He allows her to run right over him all over again.
But in that same scene, another woman comes up to Jerry Seinfeld.
She went on a date with him long ago, and she felt he did not treat her well.
She tells him what George had meant to say.
Remember me?
I'm sorry, Mary Kentardy.