October 2024. I'm sitting in there Warsaw Airport waiting for my flights to the US.
Two more people sit close to me. They will take the same flight. They've just met.
One is Polish guy in his late 50s or maybe early 60s.
He talks to the Ukrainian women just few years younger than him.
Guy talks almost non stop. He tries to explain to the woman why there is a war between russia and Ukraine.
He mentions orthodoxy, "politics" and something else. He goes in circles.
He makes tons of matter of facts claims on what Ukrainian and russian societies are.
And I'm like dude, you have person just in front of you with more direct knowledge. Ask her about her thoughts and experiences.
Then you can share your ideas but ask what the other person thinks about them. He never did that.
Then he asks the women what flight did she took from Odesa to Warsaw and he says how there are many flights now from Poland to Ukraine.
I'm in shock, the woman is in shock too. He tries to explain to him that there are no flights to or from Ukraine since Feb 2022.
He still keeps asking the same question about the flight. He doesn't listen.
He also asks me bunch of questions. Learns that I'm Ukrainian too and then keeps asking what is my home city - I said I have none and that I live abroad for many years, then he asks where in Ukraine I was born - I wasn't. Then he presses me to name any Ukrainian city. I finally tell him - Kharkiv. Even though I've only spent less than 9 years from the 37 I've been alive.
He makes final remark about the war and I completely disengage from the conversation.
Anyway, it brings me back to the countless conversations I had in my life.
People make absolutely shitty statements about things they know very little about. And more importantly they don't ask questions.
And even if they ask those questions, it is just to pour a bucket of shit opinions they have ready.
How many conversations with taxi drivers. How many shitty conversations with randos but also colleagues at work.
It's very rare to meet a person who can 1) ask few questions 2) reflect and process answers and 3) take those answers into account while continuing conversation.
Most people just have buckets of shit opinions already pre cooked that they want to splash on you.