Being wrong and not making sense to somebody isn't the same thing. If you want to really nail somebody at debate, you generally have to corner them really good by highlighting a flaw in a key point or points that destroy the supports for their belief. If you see the way that Wedrifid undermines my points, those are some examples of the types of attacks that might corner me into a defeat.
You're right to be concerned that my ego might be too big - I am concerned that I may become careless, and think that I'm going to win and then fail because I was overconfident. So far, I haven't had a big problem with that, but if this goes on long enough, I could start doing that.
Which is why I keep asking for it. I've added a request for honest critiques into a few of my discussions now, hoping that people will eventually feel comfortable with debating with me, if they're not now.
As for specifically why somebody might not make sense and yet not be wrong... well that could range anywhere from a common misunderstanding, to being bad at explaining your ideas (I admit that when trying to explain a new idea I am frequently misunderstood - there's a pattern to my problem which is really difficult to explain and even more difficult to compensate for, so I'm not going to get into that here). It is also possible that the audience was not ready for the message, didn't know a concept that was required to understand it or something, didn't get enough sleep, really there are so many reasons why stuff can fail to make sense, yet not be wrong.
And then there's the problem of getting the person to realize they've lost. Not all failures to realize you've lost are due to ego. We all want to protect ourselves against bad ideas, and nobody knows where the next bad idea is coming from. You often have to go over a lot of pieces of information with them until they get it, and sometimes it's hard to get at their true rejection. Sometimes you think you're right and the other person just isn't listening to you, but really they happen to be right. There is so much confusion in the world. It takes a pretty good amount of skill to convince someone they've lost.
This approach to debating strikes me as exemplifying everything bad that I learned in high school policy debate. Specifically, it seems to me like debate distilled down to a status competition, with arguments as soldiers and the goal being for your side to win. For status competitions, signaling of intellectual ability, and demonstrating your blue or green allegiance, this works well. What it does not sound like, to me, is someone who is seeking the truth for herself. If you engaged in a debate with someone of lesser rhetorical skill, but who was also corr...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.