You do have to keep in mind this conversation was taking place at Reason Rally, so this crowd was almost certainly already biased, and not a good representation of a general audience. (Which is why Eric said “I’ll let you get back to your fans”…because of course people like Thunderf00t are “gods” to the atheists who can’t make reasoned arguments on their own (and instead just rally behind assholes like Thunderf00t and TheAmazingAtheist and hang on every word they say like drones)…which is something you can see if you go through the Youtube history of those channels and the online back-and-forths they’ve had between various other prominant youtubers. For some entertaining ones, see here.)
Here I’m not so sure. That was part of my point. I’m not even sure Thunderf00t was that aware, and has the conversational skill to do something like that. It seemed to me it was all he could do to try to stay on topic and not get trapped in a corner by the Socratic Method of typical Christian argumentation.
I don’t think Thunderf00t possesses the social skill and understanding to be able to manipulate a crowd like that. He’s far too scientific. I think this is part of what Clayton was getting at. Notice how it was Eric who utilized the tactic of making announcements to the crowd and trying to sway them by interacting with them and making a display. While this is of course an admittedly dishonest and a bit unscrupulous tactic, it can be effective and shows an understanding on the part of the offender as to how human beings operate and are appealed to.
Again, I think they were already on his side before either one of them started talking.