Here is an interesting example of a lack of rationality and listening:
There is a satire piece named "Top 10 Reasons Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal". It's actually in favor of gay marriage.
In the comments section, the first few people say things like, "After reading the title, I came here to flame you, but then I noticed your post actually agrees with me. Good post!"
What these "gay rights supporters" mean is that if the post actually had opposed gay marriage then, *no matter what argument it gave*, these people would have flamed it. They are interested in saying something is wrong without considering whether it's true, or makes sense, or anything, only if they like the conclusion.
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either that or.... they were already fairly certain from earlier consideration of the issue that they were right. thus, they anticipated a high likelihood of finding fallacious arguments in a piece opposed to their viewpoint.
for example, you happen upon an article titled "2+2=5" or "the best and worst among our nation's 73 senators."
have you never been pretty sure someone would be wrong before hearing all the details of their argument?
if i judge from the title that a piece is dumb, then i don't read it, and i certainly don't go out of my way to talk with its author. if i do leave a comment, i am always replying to something i've read and engaging in actual discussion. if you don't expect a good argument, fine, but stop shouting.
A lot of people think that the right ideas need to be imposed with violence.
They don't consider the possibility of being wrong.
even if you are right, violence is still bad. one reason it's bad is if you make someone do something with violence, he won't understand what going on. so he'll have a bad time just MINDLESSLY obeying due to your brute force.