Dancing Around Certainty

When I read the news or listen to political debates or hear some of what politicians say, I realize that there is not a single thing that I can say I know with the certainty that politicians and leaders seem to possess for every single one of their beliefs. I often try to put myself in their shoes to see how they would think and to try and understand why they are so sure.
Is it just the blindness we all have to some degree? From the moment our eyes open into this world, there is someone to tell us who we are and how the world is. We are told what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s appropriate and what’s polite, what’s good and what’s bad, what’s black and what’s white. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s part of what it is to be human, but it also means we all walk around with these massive blinders that stop us from seeing so many other possibilities out there. The sea of grey that lies between one set of blinders and the next is where much of the truth lies.
I guess some discover these blinders and immediately hide behind them. Some try their best to see past them and reach some level of clarity. Some never really notice them and live within them. Some exploit them. Some praise these blinders and how lucky they were to be born with this particular set. 
I look at people arguing with one another on TV or on YouTube and I wonder if they ever really listen to each other? I see a lot of debating back and forth, a lot of rhetoric and statements, sometimes angry, sometimes violent, but I rarely see anyone listening to what the other person is saying, actually attempting to see things through their eyes. It makes me wonder if arguing and debating are the best ways to find the truth. It seems people just set their boots down deeper and firmer to defend their ground.

Everyone is so certain.

I see defense of that certainty at any cost. I think some people mistake their beliefs with their identity. I think an attack on the way they see the world becomes an attack on all that they know and all that they hold dear, on their selves and the core of what they are. They seem afraid of losing that certainty, and that fear drives the hate and dehumanization of others who hold differing opinions. They divide the rest so easily into camps of us versus them.
I find so much uncertainty tied with every attempt to know anything, yet they generalize and over-simplify. I mean even someone who’s self-aware and trying to be completely honest with himself and others would face the difficult task of translating complicated, multifaceted, often vague concepts and assertions in one’s head which can have varying probabilities of being true or not, into language. Unless one chooses his words extremely carefully and goes into tiresome and exhaustive details as to how much certainty is attached to each thought and concept and all the doubts that oppose this certainty, then the vast majority of a person’s thought processes, beliefs, his very being is lost when put in language. 
You sometimes just have to remember that the person in front of you is a human too and has his own set of blinders, experiences, morals and desires of doing good that drive you.