I had a freeze response if someone attacked me verbally. People figured out I was a safe person to vent,emotionally dump and I won't retaliate. Did it start in your childhood? Such people are afraid of people, who fight back,put a boundary or retaliate.They identify and then target people who tolerate their emotional toxic dump.What I do is...if done repeatedly I go low contact with such person.They will find another target.I don't believe healthy discussions are possible with such people ,when their primary objective is to crap all over you to relieve themselves of their emotional diarrhea, so to speak.