[nvrspyx]

There’s certainly a fine line between playing devil’s advocate to measure the strength of an argument and “trolling”, much like, as an example, there is a fine line between hunting an animal for sustenance and hunting an animal for sport.

[sideaccount]

I completely agree, generally when I play devil's advocate, I preface it with: "Playing devils advocate, how would you respond to this counter point". The fine line is whether or not the other participants in the conversation are aware of your intent to play devil's advocate. If you are the only one who knows you are playing devil's advocate, your intent might be misconstrued. And if they never find out you were playing devils advocate, then well...

[asveikau]

If someone else might hold that view legitimately and it stands on reasonable logic by itself, does it matter if someone is playing "devil's" advocate or not? Maybe this is not devil's advocate but something called empathy?