Good conversations mean each person has something valuable to say. But if one person is talking and the other is A/ not listening or B/ interrupting, it is no longer a conversation, but a competition.
It happens in everyday life, where one person asks a question, but before a response is finished, another spray of words comes from the purported questioner.
Conclusion: The questioner doesn't really want a response, but an audience and agreement.
Some of the most prominent offenders of this basic rule of courtesy can be seen weekly among the panelists on Bill Maher's TV show. They are so focused and determined to propagate their own opinion that they neither hear others nor allow them an opportunity to speak. And when all panelists behave the same way, interrupting continually, the "show" is reduced to a display of jabbering, and the "show" becomes a contest to see who can talk louder, longer and say less than any other.
But there seems to be a market for such a display, to entertain jabber-watchers.
As well go to a zoo.
Moral: If you don't want an answer, don't ask the question. Otherwise, the encounter becomes no more than speechifying propaganda, so don't pretend it's anything else.
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