Alma 21:10

10 And it came to pass as he began to expound these things unto them they were angry with him, and began to mock him; and they would not hear the words which he spake.

And so we see their reaction. Anger. Contention. Which are the spirit of the devil. Then came mocking, designed to discredit the argument by discrediting the messenger. They purposely refused to hear his words. 

I experienced this with certain people in my life countless times. When I tell the truth and hold them accountable for their actions, they almost always get angry, mock, insult or find fault with me, and that so loudly and incessantly that I do not even have the opportunity to speak anymore. They simply refuse to listen. But that is not enough. Out of anger they want to silence the person speaking the truth, and angrily attack. 

They do not have ears to hear, or in others words they reject the truth by refusing to even listen. By choosing not to listen, Satan wins. For faith cometh by hearing the word of God. If someone refuses to listen to the word of God, even just to consider it, they cannot grow in faith. That is akin to what we call tuning out someone, referring to the days when radios were tuned to certain frequencies to listen to music or the spoken word. If someone didn't like the radio station, they would tune it out, and listen to another or none at all. People sometimes simply choose not to listen, and either walk away or mock and deride the person they don’t want to hear. 

How can we learn anything if we refuse to listen to anything?