My father does this, too. But I'm not sure it's real arguing, as in mutually respecting debate. It's an attempt to self-aggrandize and at the same time, put everyone else in their place, thus making him feel superior and comfortable. My NF will watch Fox News endlessly, bone up on topics, then test us for 1) basic knowledge of subject adn 2) appropriate viewpoint. If you want a comforting story, I have one. It's a little off-topic but related. Recently my NF insisted that we all join him (at his expense, mostly) on vacation. It was a Big Family Event, including my mother (whom he twice tried to murder) my brothers (who caught him in the act) and my latest stepmother, a scant two years younger than myself (we finally crossed that threshold). All week, he repeated a story about how he'd made an older woman in a supermarket cry (supposedly she claimed to have been at the counter before him, when in reality, HE was FIRST), and he'd humiliated her right there by addressing not her, but the management, and made a scene. My youngest brother, very successful, wife, two kids, and knew my father the least growing up and up who was until then the only one who still sort of idolized him, stared at my F as he told this story. I felt my brother shift. I felt his confusion followed by his understanding, and ultimate sadness, in the five looong minutes it took my NF to relay this tale to his captive table. And my brother said, quietly, not at all congratulatory, "nice going." And my NF was totally discombobulated. None of us heard from him for three months after that.
