There seems to be a lot of people wearing a mask of certitude. They claim expertise on matters and pontificate on things with an air of confidence that may or may not be warranted. Remember both James Carville and Bill Maher told the world, using different words, that Donald Trump would definitely, unequivocally, lose the 2024 election? As far as they were concerned, they “knew” for a fact that Trump would lose. They were dead wrong. Likewise, Professor Allan Lichtman, an historian at American University developed what he said was a foolproof model consisting of 13 true-or-false statements that would enable him to predict presidential elections with pinpoint accuracy. He predicted Trump would lose the election, claiming all of the evidence pointed to that undeniable conclusion. He was wrong.
Guess what? Every single one of us has a current belief that we “know” we are right about. . . and yet we are dead wrong.
We don’t know we are wrong. If we did, we would stop believing that one thing.
If we are intellectually honest with ourselves, and if we listen to our own statements bellowing out iron-clad assertions, and if we have even a modicum of humility, we will realize we make claims of accuracy that are not always sustainable. We speak in ways that lead others to believe we “know” we are factual about things that we are not quite factual about, in spite of our bold confidence and self-assurance.
And for the record, I know for a fact that I’m right about this!
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