For the debate, debates don’t work. It doesn’t matter how much someone gets totally owned, the people who agree with them will dream up some interpretation where they actually won, only lost due to “unfair debate tactics” or just go quiet in their support for a few weeks and then act like they never saw the debate.
As for his other shenanigans, I think that did lose him some popularity but ultimately a lot of his fans view him as a daddy figure and so his flaws “humanize” him to them. Also his philosophy is just agnostic Christianity so forgiving people for personal flaws as long as they hate the gays as much as you is big with them.
For the debate, debates don’t work. It doesn’t matter how much someone gets totally owned, the people who agree with them will dream up some interpretation where they actually won, only lost due to “unfair debate tactics” or just go quiet in their support for a few weeks and then act like they never saw the debate.
As for his other shenanigans, I think that did lose him some popularity but ultimately a lot of his fans view him as a daddy figure and so his flaws “humanize” him to them. Also his philosophy is just agnostic Christianity so forgiving people for personal flaws as long as they hate the gays as much as you is big with them.