At some point in the 1990s, I watched some forum show, with the moderator and a couple of 'experts' on the stage.
Question-time opened up and one audience member wanted to ask a question. This turned into a very long 'I-believe-this' chat....going for almost 90 seconds. Then he turned to flip a question into this.....demanding that what he said was 'factual' and your answer had to fit into the question. The question though? Well....it went on for probably 60 seconds.
The 'expert' looked at the guy and in 10 seconds....said the summary was invalid (like a professor would do) and the answer can't be derived from the data presented. 'Next question' was the end of the 'expert's' moment.
You could tell the audience member was all peeved and upset, but he'd consumed all that time....for virtually nothing.
In an average month now (2020)....I probably watch five hours of public forums like that, with five to ten of these 'whale-farts' (my term for the chatting and unanswerable questions) from the five hours.
If you had a 'point'.....you need to get to it in sixty seconds. If you have a question....it needs to be structured as a question and not demanding it meet your preconceived notion of the answer.
I sat and watched this morning some fake town-hall piece where President Trump tried to answer questions from the public....with these all structured as a two-minute comment, and answers from Trump had to fit the notion of the citizen. It became a joke very quickly.
The true problem of this.....after you've seen enough of these as the audience member....you lose patience and understanding in the crowd trying to reshape your opinion. They aren't helping the situation....they are hurting it.
