Make their case for them
The fastest way to win an argument is counter-intuitive: before you lay a finger on the other side, . A steelman is the opposite of a straw man. You rebuild your opponent’s argument in its most generous, most defensible form — and only then decide whether it still stands.
This is not politeness. It is leverage. In one review of recorded debates, arguments that opened by restating the other side gained more ground with undecided listeners than arguments that opened with attack — because the audience stops bracing for a trick and starts actually listening.
It also protects you from the cheapest mistake in rhetoric: winning against a version of the argument .
You have not understood an argument until you can state it well enough that the person who holds it would say: yes — that is exactly what I meant.
The procedure
Restate their strongest claim in one sentence, with no sneering adjectives.
Add the best evidence for it — including a point they missed.
Name the conditions under which it would be right.
Only now, show where those conditions fail.
Do this and one of two things happens. Either you concede a genuinely better idea, which is a win. Or your objection survives contact with the strongest possible opponent, which is a much larger win. Either way you leave with the truth, not just the last word. As you read the next argument you meet, try to .