People who refuse to clarify statements

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This is a mild frustration for me, but it can get me completely stuck in a conversation:

The other day I was in a chat room with some people I know. One of them said something I didn't understand, so since he was trying to ask me questions, I asked him to clarify what he said. Instead, he kept elaborating on what I assume was the basic premise that I did not understand in the first place, and simply would not explain the basic premise no matter how I phrased the question (I didn't answer him, and that was pretty much the end of our discussion).

There's nowt as queer as folk.

My parents do this. Most of the time they don't even bother to clarify/explain, they just say "it doesn't matter". I find that acutely frustrating.

I really hate that.

Your thread piqued my curiosity. Do you know that phrase? It usually gives me a bit of a headache thinking about the phrase, because I like being curious, so it having been invoked in me is not offensive to me. However, in the situation you mentioned the phrase would seem to make sense, unlike in any situation that I recall noticing its use.

I apologise, in advance of anyone seeking clarification

This behaviour frustrates me too. I've even seen it on WP a few times.

A guy did this to me in the WP chatroom yesterday, I got so frustrated when he said "There's nothing to clarify" when I was clearly having trouble following. I ended up cursing at him and getting a warning.

I've experienced this, and what it seems to be, at least in some cases, is not being able to understand someone who thinks differently.

It's (at least sometimes) not that they don't want to give a helpful answer. It's that they can't conceive that you are literally wanting to know what you are asking. They assuming you must mean something else and aren't articulating it well.

I lost my last almost-girlfriend this way. She was fantastic, the only person who's face I can instantly visualise. But she liked to speak in very short sentences. When I did not understand something she would say "think about it" (or if online, "read back."

A lot of people think that their interpretation of a situation is the only one possible, but when I "think about it" I always see a hundred different possibilities.

She finally decided that "you don't understand me" and the relationship was over.