Context matters. Also the purpose of a debate often isn't to convince the counter party but rather to convince the spectators. When you consider a situation in which you are faced with a moron who is actively out belittling and trying to bully participants in something then frankly you'll never be able to convince the dickhead of anything but you will be able to diminish the harm they cause to honest discussions by pissing all over their battery.
Finally any really honest discussion can be more about exploring ideas and even if you take a strong line in the debate the real outcome is not people parrotting your thinking but forming critical thinking on the material.