Comment debate I engaged in on Youtube

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Recently, on Youtube, I (for some reason) thwarted myself into a debate on Youtube with one other person regarding the nature of conversion therapy (among other things). If it's not too much to ask, I was wondering if somebody could read or skim through the comment section and critique me on how I did. What did I do well? What could I have done better? My username is poetmath and the person I debated was named ForeverJesusReigns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjqpjRYMiaw&list=LLyAr7emRdLE2gyfwKaLfyQA&index=7&feature=plpp_video

Alright, let me take a look.

Edit: This guy....

You know him?

Before I say anything I just wanna say I love your avatar - Hipster Ariel FTW!

There was way more than I could possibly read, partially because I'm tired, and partially because I know where it goes, but I did skim your comments, you had a cool head and tried to argue your point. Unfortunately you did it with someone who was VERY religious. I hate to break it to you but trying to have a debate with a deeply influenced Christian (or whatever variant of faith they are). They have a very nasty habit of ignoring the facts and believing whatever they've taken away from the bible or been taught - and if the facts ring true enough, they'll find away to try and turn it back on the fault of the issue at hand if possible to pass the blame back.

I must admit I did almost post in reply to them "Hey, how does it feel living life as somebodies b***h?" although I had second thoughts ; ) I have major beef with crazies. To clarify to avoid anyone snapping at me, when I say crazies I mean those people who have nothing else going in their life and want to throw their religion onto someone else, believing that what they've been taught is the ONLY way in life. Not those who find genuine faith and strength in what they believe.

As I said though, you were calm and rational, you just picked a brick wall to debate with I'm afraid.

Thanks! I must say, hipsterdom sort of fascinates me (I personally think they dress cool), which was one reason why I chose to use that avatar. But that's an entirely different topic to get into.



Yes, although I did my best to show him upmost courtesy and respect because he did the same to me. Plus, I didn't want to make my side of the debate look bad.

I must admit, there were times when I felt seering disdain toward the man. I took extreme offense toward his insinuation that I couldn't truly be happy if I were gay, but I restrained from responding to that. Also, he'd swamp me with so many comments that I just didn't have the patience to respond to each and every one of them. I swear, I seriously started to regret ever making a post in that goddamn comment thread.

Well you can walk away from there knowing you're controlled by your OWN motives and feelings ; ) and you'll be walking away a happy man.

It happens to me all the time on YouTube though lol. I always say something to get someone's back up. Also I've been in the situation where I've regretted making a comment, just because I used the word 'video' instead of 'channel'..... people love semantics.

You're far nicer than I would have been. I'm not nearly tolerant enough of religious nutcases.

Ugh. Believe me, I didn't enjoy pretending to exchange pleasantries with him any more than you would. To tell you the truth, I was on the border of outright despising him. I let him know around the end of our chat that I was gay, and he went on to talk about the suckish lives of his gay "friends" - if one could truly call them that. Then he seems to think that his gay "friends" are accurate representatives of every LGBT person in the world. Not only that, but he had the nerve to insinuate that I couldn't truly be happy while maintaining a gay identity, and let me know of his passion to "overturn laws that affirm destructive behavior" as if being gay is some kind of death sentence. I really don't understand why the concept of "live and let live" seems to be such an alien concept to these people.

If anything can be classified as destructive behavior, it's the bigotry directed against a group of people who do nothing of harm to anyone, and whose only "crime" is loving someone of the same sex. F**k that guy. Seriously, I'm done trying to fool myself into thinking that he's any better than your typical religious bigot. If there's anything I've learned from this exchange, it's that I absolutely cannot debate with anti-gay bigots without having it take some kind of emotional toll on me, no matter how pleasant the exchange seems to the casual observer. To those of you who do this on a regular basis, how do you do it?

It wouldn't be the case in Texas of coarse, but some places in Canada actually have a unit in school (presumably during sex-ed) dispelling myths about homosexuality and teaching tolerance. I think that used to be taught in my area, but it wasn't there when I went through so someone must have complained. The school-board needs to show a bit of backbone...

It would largely depend on which area of the United States you're in. The Bible Belt predictably wouldn't teach anything outside of "abstinence only," whereas some more liberal areas such as the northeast would. California recently signed into law a bill that mandates LGBT history be taught in public schools (of course, that law was not without controversy - such as a failed petition drive to have it repealed at the ballot box).

I think you did very well. I think that ForeverJesusReigns was using the Gish Gallop - quoting lots of research that wasn't really relevant (like confusing the rectum with the anus...)

I don't think I would have managed to keep debating as long as you did

That's exactly what he did! He'd go off on a tangent about our "Christian nation," the Kinsey report, Muslims, anal sex, and all kinds of other s**t that I didn't have the time or patience to address. I pretty much ignored all of this because I didn't want to distract from the original debate. Plus, stupid Youtube has these pain-in-the-ass comment constraints. While I was reading all of his little side remarks, I kept thinking to myself, "Wow, this guy really is a nut."