When someone connects the dots for us, many people believe they are being told the truth. Many times the opposite is true. Don’t believe me? Take a piece of paper and draw at least three dots on it. How many ways can you connect those dots? More than one, and that’s why connecting the dots is opinion rather than fact, and something you should check before believing.
We all see the world in through a personal lens whose foundation is how we connect the dots. Our education, environment, and experience all contribute to how we see the world. As we grow older, our continuing exposure to these factors can cause our way of interpreting the world to change. Of course changing how you view the world depends on how open you are to change. In any case, someone who is firm in their beliefs probably won’t change their mind based on a single example of connecting the dots differently.
Yet the world is continuously changing how the dots are connected in some circumstances while being comfortably consistent in how the dots connect in others. These differences, consistent versus variable, are factors we must take into account as well.
So what difference does it make in how I connect my dots? They are necessary to creating my truth, aren’t they? The answer is, how you connect the dots makes all the difference because you don’t have your own truth, as much as you’d like to. There is only one truth, and it’s THE TRUTH. If you connect your dots differently than they are connected in THE TRUTH, you are wrong, or misguided, or maybe even evil.
If you connect your dots in a manner that allows you to think other people – some say races, but there’s only one race, the human race – are inferior to some other subset of people, you are a racist. There is no such thing as inferior or superior when you talk about a people. Whites are no better than Blacks are no better than Browns.
One person may be superior (better) to another in a specific skill or capability. No one I know can compete with Babe Ruth as a home run hitter, yet there are many who are or were better at math or carpentry. Superiority or inferiority is a characteristic of an individual, not a norm of a whole people.
Here is an example of how you connect the dots determines the “truth” they tell:
King George V treats American colonies poorly.
A small, dedicated minority can have a great effect.
The King refuses to hear American requests.
American colonies request representation from the crown.
Many Americans loyal to the King leave for Canada and the Caribbean.
The American colonies revolt.
The US is created.
All of these dots are historically correct. If you connect them in order your start and ending seem correct, but they do not reflect the truth. The correct order is 1., 4., 3., 2., 6., 7., 5., so the timeline would look like this:
1. King George V treats American colonies poorly.
4. American colonies request representation from the crown.
3. The King refuses to hear American requests.
2. A small, dedicated minority can have a great effect.
6. The American colonies revolt.
7. The US is created.
5. Many Americans loyal to the King leave for Canada and the Caribbean.
The order in which the dots are connected certainly means a lot in this example. If you’re interested in the truth, the order in which the dots are connected is important in any situation. If you add in a dot that is not germane to the timeline but is true you can change the results of the timeline, which means it is no longer true.
Take the example above and add “8. Majority Rules.” If dot 8 is inserted anywhere in the list, the timeline no longer reflects truth. Being a less than 25% minority supported the Revolution, it never would have happened if the majority actually ruled.
This has been a simple example of connecting the dots and the result of how they are connected and which dots are connected. Data points that are not a part of the equation can skew the results, even though those results can be proven by known true facts.
If you connect the dots as Matt Taibbi and his co-authors did concerning Russiagate, you find a plot to keep Donald Trump from election. The plot extended until after the election, when the plotters spied on the President, hid pertinent facts from the Administration, and obstructed Trump’s agenda in any legal or illegal way possible, including two specious impeachments.
We agree with this analysis, as it comports with the timeline we’ve personally observed. This leads us to accept the statements made by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen, and that the lawsuits against him today are lawfare and not appropriate. All the information about the people prosecuting him and the inappropriate things they’ve done lead us to believe Trump more than ever before.
This is how connecting the dots can help or hurt a cause. Always remember to use provable and applicable data points. Do the research to not only prove to yourself that you are right, but to give you the ammunition you will need to defend your belief.
And don’t ever be so close-minded that you dismiss other people’s opinions without researching them. They may have connected your dots in a way you never thought of, and you may learn something.
Great article!