Epiphany

Did you ever notice that much of the debate on the internet is taken up by people who'll spend entirely too much time arguing over what is depicted in "The Treachery of Images" and thinking themselves clever for finding complex (and unintended) meaning in any simple straight forward statement?

Perhaps that is too subtle.  Or not subtle enough.

You can also meet these people while they pick a fight about whether an airplane on a treadmill can take off.  The key thing to note is how they will get you to commit to an answer, then chose the "devil's advocate" position so they might have a debate using rules of their own devising to either get you to say "fuck it" and walk away or...  No, that's how it always ends.  They'll keep the "debate" going until their opponent gives up.

They also take particular joy in getting you to have a debate in something you've no stake in.  They're not stupid, see, they're kind of clever here.  They use the no-stakes debates as a means of sussing out how you will react to changes to the rules, shifts in topics and moving goal posts.

Then when you want to have a discussion about something that does matter to you, you've taught them how to effectively twist the conversation to their advantage so they can WIN!