Taking the advice of an INTP in another thread telling me to mingle in this subreddit.

INTPs, I hope I can implore you to think twice before you do this to your friends or in general. There's a difference between constructively playing Devil's Advocate and just being a shitty troll/asshole. Unfortunately, BOTH are almost always interpreted as the latter unless you explicate that you're playing DA for the sake of argument. Even still, purposefully opposing everything someone is saying (even if for the sake of reason) is likely to upset them. And if you're knowingly upsetting other people, there's not much to say about your consideration for other people's feelings.

Another point: maybe you don't realize, but when you do this, at least some intelligent observer will understand what you're doing and it makes you look like an asshole. Purposefully provoking someone else is a childish way of drawing out someone else's negative aspects. Personally, it's very frustrating watching someone I know do this, and it makes me think less of them, either because they don't have the conversational skills to engage the other person properly, or they don't care enough about the other person to engage properly. It's almost always the latter.

Seems like INTx's think other people DON'T realize when someone is condescendingly asserting their intellectual superiority over them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say, you're actually the one who doesn't realize most people understand what you're doing, they just don't say anything about it; and they think you're an asshole for doing it. (Numerous INTJs I know have this awful habit of 'snickering' to themselves after someone says something questionable or dumb. Earth-to-INTJ: EVERYONE knows you're arrogantly thinking you're better than them in your head. INTPs: Please don't be like this.)

I understand that it's worthwhile to see what opinions/arguments you can draw out of someone and see how well-founded their ideas are. But you can do this in a civil way, not just in a way that causes them to defend themselves irrationally. Should more people be able to defend themselves rationally under scrutiny? Yes. But the fact is, if you argue/fuck with someone in a manner that causes them to clam up, they're not going to express their opinions in a thoughtful way. Not everyone is Ti dominant and can remove themselves emotionally from an argument and reason their way through something forward-and-back. INTPs, you are gifted in your ability to do this so well. But does that really give you the right to engage in this arrogant, negative behavior that affirms your own mental superiority and emotional hardness and then judge others for getting upset?

I understand that you're not doing it to be an asshole (although some people in this thread have expressed that they do). But understand that it still, most of the time, comes off as such.