"hear the opinion of" would be the normal interpretation (US English), especially when "listen to" is followed by "what [they] have to say about it". I struggle to understand in what context "obey" would make sense.
"listen to" is commonly used as a form of follow/obey in vernacular English. "Listen to Bob, he knows what he is doing." At minimum it frequently connotes more than just listening.
I agree. A related anecdote - I was on another forum filled with mostly uber-progressive white people. The topic of racism came up (origins, impact, how to combat, etc) and there were no shortage of passionate posts. Then, one person of color came on the board and described his real world experience, which didn't really sync up with the narrative the rest of the board had glommed onto.
So, did all of these uber-progressive white folks re-think their positions and use this as an opportunity for a bit of enlightenment? Not so much. They proceeded to discount this person's actual experiences, demean them, accuse them of being racist themselves, and actually got them banned from the forum. And of course patted themselves on the back for their valiant fight against racism.
