Listening doesn’t mean “there are sounds coming into my ears”. It means keeping an open mind and considering the viewpoint presented to you- not just picking on all of its flaws, but finding its virtues. It’s knowing that you might be wrong, then seeking out more information from all sorts of different perspectives.

And it is okay to be wrong. Very few people get it right the first time. Most topics turn out to be more complicated the more you learn about them, and plenty of folks think they understand something and then find out they had the wrong idea altogether. The important part is that you’re willing to admit “yeah, I had it wrong” so you can learn from the experience.

You will never persuade people to change their minds if they don’t want to hear you out. Similarly, you’re unlikely to change your beliefs if you refuse to listen to people you disagree with. Sometimes this is a good thing. More often, it’s a problem. Learning often involves discarding old beliefs to take on newer, more accurate ones. If you refuse to listen to contradictory beliefs, then you won’t learn that your own beliefs are flawed. You’ll just accumulate proof that you’re right (even if you’re not).