If you can’t at least comprehend, on an intellectual level, where “the other side” is coming from, and put their argument into words (as well or better than they can), you probably don’t understand your own argument as well as you believe you do.
That doesn’t mean you believe they are even a tiny bit right, just that you can see where they’ve gone wrong. Which is useful.
Sometimes it's dangerous to publicly express their views, even as a method for countering them by steel-manning them, because someone will take it out of context and use it against you later. It's still good to be able to do it in your own mind for your own clarity of thought.
Who knows, it may even cause you to realize something you never thought of before.
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