How useful are debates in general for changing the opinions of the person you are debating with? Most debates are implicitly or explicitly framed as contests with opponents, a zero-sum game. The right thing might be to focus more on the 3rd party onlookers, some consequences might be:

*Seek bigger debates (more viewers)

*Feel less sad when your opponent "beats" you, using twisted logic.

*Present more and different types of arguments.

*Do wrestle pigs, if the debate is entertaining and public.

*Focus more on getting new info in a debate, then isolate yourself to perform belief updates when you are not in contest mode anymore.

*If the last point applies equally to your opponent, stop before they get annoyed with you. Allow them to perform calm private reasoning later instead.

Can someone think of others?