Talking isn't the only way we break through barriers of mistrust, and it's not the best way either, often enough. But it can be a good way.

Learning to listen to what other people who don't agree with you are saying is never a waste of time, and nor is talking in a way that makes it possible for other people who don't agree with you to listen. If people in the middle of it listen to people who don't matter, outsiders, maybe it can help in listening to the peiople who do matter on the other side.

Joining in the shouting from safety of the grandstands - that would be and is a waste of time.