Misdiagnosing Dialogue

Dialogue is what they called it.  They were, they said, exchanging points of view.  It was nothing of the sort.  It was the shutting off or out of what each other might say.  No sooner were words spoken than they were countered, rejected, contradicted, condemned, denied, or made to mean something else.  One side could not listen.  The other would not see.  The gap widened.  Alienation was born, and flourished.  They had begun with nothing in common, and went on to prove they never could.  It was combat rather than sharing, and so while each felt he had won, neither felt he had gained.  Surely, they'd given it the wrong name.  Dialogue must mean something else.