I learned a new phrase reading C. S. Lewis’ Perelandra. Our hero Ransom has traveled to Venus where Satan or one of his agents (the “Un-man” inhabiting the body of a human physicist) is tempting the Venusian Eve (“the Lady”), who is putting up more resistance than did the mother of our race.
The others were close beside [Ransom]–the Lady, to judge by her breathing, asleep and the Un-man doubtless waiting to arouse her and resume its solicitations the moment Ransom should doze. For the third time, more strongly than ever before, it came into his head, “This can’t go on.”
The enemy was using Third Degree methods. It seemed to Ransom that, but for a miracle, the Lady’s resistance was bound to be worn away in the end. Why did no miracle come?
A little Google search reveals that “the third degree” can refer to any abusive interrogation technique, the mildest of which is to wear down a suspect with hour after hour of questioning until the suspect’s resistance is worn down and he gives in and confesses (whether the accusation is true or false).
In the great debate between Ransom and the Tempter, the two are roughly evenly matched in intelligence, but unlike Ransom and the Lady, the Un-man never tires. Furthermore, “It showed plenty of subtlety and intelligence when talking to the Lady; but Ransom soon perceived that it regarded intelligence simply and solely as a weapon“.
Members of the Orthosphere can sympathize with Ransom, because this is how the Enemy regime operates as well. It’s apologists, spies, and libelists seem to possess unlimited numbers, time, and energy. They can control the masses by repeating the same unsupported claims and accusations over and over again, ignoring counter-arguments and hounding dissenters and critics, until by shear repetition their assertions appear to be common sense to all but a few despised hold-outs. (We conservatives certainly see this, but I expect the experience is similar for non-regime aligned Leftists like TERFs and old-school Marxists as well.)
What does one do when trapped in a never-ending debate with a never-tiring foe? Ransom does find a way, but since there may be federal agents reading this, I’ll let interested readers consult the story to see what it is.
The Orthosphere 
An aside, it’s funny you learned the phrase there, it shows up in old American crime movies, Bugs Bunny cartoons, etc. from the 30s (I think) onwards. Seems to fall off later but still survives here and there. I didn’t even clock that the English ever used the phrase.
That which is falling should be pushed.
Perhaps this is just epistemic and moral entropy. Perhaps all nature tends to nihilism. A belief is like a mountain, the third degree is like the rain. To adapt Robert Frost’s line, “Something there is that doesn’t love a belief, that wants it down . . .”