If you go out of your way to engage with people you dislike you're admitting you can't resist them. Otherwise why are you there?

What you're admitting is that you really don't dislike them. If you enter the fray with the understanding that you won't change anything, then there can be some debate. Or, you can be Errol Flynn and approach it from the standpoint of subduing the bad guy with your sword. That's probably impolite and beyond the bounds of civility. I think that if you truly dislike the verbal judo, you'll avoid them and not go out of the way to find them.

sometimes you dont have much choice, like if youre living with them in an apartment building