In a video taken during a question and answer session Rick Santorum gave just two days ago at Penn State University, Santorum gets into a debate with a college student and emphatically asserts gay marriage will “undermine the family, it will destroy faith in America.”
Santorum begins the clip by saying he was hurt by name-calling in a CNN interview with Piers Morgan — “now I am a bigot, because I believe what the bible teaches. 2000 years of religion is now bigoted.”
Responding to the student’s reference to the American Psychological Association, Santorum counters with “an organization supporting a position is not evidence.”
The three-minute video excerpt, taken from The Daily Collegian YouTube channel has been viewed more than 60,000 times in less than 12 hours. A full 17 minute version includes a moment where Santorum compares gay marriage to incest, and states marriage is not a right, but a privilege.
Twitter, Reddit and YouTube quickly announced the college student as the winner of the debate, with most pointing out the holes in Santorum’s argument.
On Twitter, Chelsea Dee took issue with Santorum’s use of the phrase “Time Out”, while Andy G tweeted the video saying Santorum lost the argument.
Over on the Reddit, the video was posted several times in different subreddits, and instigated much debate mostly in favor of the Penn student, who has yet to be identified.
The top upvoted comment in the politics subreddit was written by Kenny_Login:
“‘An organization supporting a position is not evidence of benefit to society.’ So, you can’t present the fact that millions of catholics believe homosexuality is wrong as evidence in an argument against gay marriage then, right?”
Redditor CarpeCarp wrote a similar assertion in the LGBT subreddit:
“All these associations prove is that they have a point of view and the people who join them agree with that point of view… That’s not evidence!” YOU CAN SAY THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT RELIGION!”
Over on YouTube, the topvoted comment written by freethinking1, made a point similar to the redditors:
“He says that the american psychology association are just people who agree with each other, and it doesn’t mean they are right. The same goes for him, he belongs to a group of people, the church and religion he follows, that agree with the same idea, not necessarily making his thought correct.”
Other YouTubers questioned Santorum’s sexuality. Writes Rexcetera:
“It’s becoming clear that that piece of sexual discharge, Little Ricky Santorum, must be gay — why else would he talk about over and over? I know no gay man who talks about it as much as he does…”