Quicksand arguments

A very nice piece on quicksand arguments by Timothy Brown, a PhD student in philosophy at UW-Seattle (who has  blogging talent):

At some point in the conversation, a line gets crossed and they’ll argue: “you think too much,” or “you just have to be right about everything,” or “you’re so argumentative,” and so on. Sometimes people say these things in earnest (as if they’re identifying some problem in me) while other people say them in anger (as if they’re getting back at me for some damage I’ve done). In either case, once a person tells me I think too hard or I try to know too much (or think I already know everything), I know the conversation is over. The game is over—there are no other moves I can make.

How could I respond, after all? If I respond with an argument, more thought, or response whatsoever, it only demonstrates how argumentative I am and how much I overthink things. “You’re so argumentative,” is a quicksand argument. The more I try to escape it, the more I sink into a deeper pit. It is the argument that ends all arguments that follow it.