> It's not that I actively want to 'prove someone wrong', but part of the way I learn is through argument; expressing my disagreement in the hope that the other person will prove me wrong and I might learn something.
If you don't put this into the preamble (e.g.: for the sake of the argument) of your opinion then there's no way other parties can infer that you are seeking more information through disagreement (or something along the lines of the Socratic methods).
But people aren't punching bags for you to use in order to get to know more. Most don't like being abused and misled regarding your real intentions.
I'd deal with it by just replacing the habit of being argumentative by the habit of closing the tab and get back later to it to see if you can still add something more valuable to the conversation than adding fuel to the fire.
If you don't put this into the preamble (e.g.: for the sake of the argument) of your opinion then there's no way other parties can infer that you are seeking more information through disagreement (or something along the lines of the Socratic methods).
But people aren't punching bags for you to use in order to get to know more. Most don't like being abused and misled regarding your real intentions.
I'd deal with it by just replacing the habit of being argumentative by the habit of closing the tab and get back later to it to see if you can still add something more valuable to the conversation than adding fuel to the fire.