I don’t see that you are. My experience and analysis of this dynamic is this.
There is an issue X (conflicting goods, afterlife/no afterlife, determinism/free will, suffering being fractured and fragmented (no ‘I’ or ‘i’).
I see no difference between them in the pattern of dialogue.
Every sentence you write can be treated as you making a failed attempt to refute the existence of the problem
or
as you saying that you have the answer to the issue.
So, if any sentence you write seems to or does disagree with or even frames differently any point he made: you are denying either 1) the importance of the issue 2) the issue itself 3) or are claiming to know the solution.
This allows repetition.
Determinism, as issue, is the closest to an instant short circuit because any conflict or misunderstanding may be compelled.
Even the mere act of trying to explain something to him will be taken as a denial that he
might
be
compelled
to
not
understand.
Or you might not be.
Or as an example of you saying you are free from the laws of the universe.
I’ve wondered what is going on for a long time, since never once does he ever admit that perhaps another person is seeing something in any particular instance of his thinking or interpreting was incorrect, what this was.
I think you are basically talking to his addiction. He is suffering, presenting these issues that cannot be resolved to others, and getting them to try to solve them and having them fail over and over is what he is addicted to.
I used to think this was denied rage. But I just think he is hurt.
He will never admit that he reasoned poorly - in the abstract he will say this is possible, but never once will he say ‘oh, yes, there I reasoned incorrectly’ or ‘there I misrepresented you’. He will always respond slightly askew what you have written. And he will always frame your responses as you making claims you are not making.
Anything else would mean that some other process might make him feel better, that something else is actually causing his pain.
I mean, for years his pain was caused by conflicting goods, and look, that’s gone, at least for weeks now. Now it is determinism. ‘What could possibly be more important?’ The exact same interpersonal dynamic with a new topic. The exact same patterns of misinterpreting other people’s posts.
This dyanmic is the addiction.
Perhaps it will change, someday. Perhaps, not.
But it is exactly the same right now.