I don't know why the right ever thought Destiny was moderate or a "more rational leftist".

To me he is exactly like that atheist "The cosmic skeptic". If you watch debates with older atheists, there will be times where atheists will concede points because they have actual viewpoints that they're willing to say yes or no to.

With cosmic skeptic, he gets held up as a new more rational atheist because he seems like he listens more by not having a hard and fast opinion, but what he's really doing is just not standing on any point so that no point can ever be conceded while conducting himself like a "reasoned intellectual". This gives the impression of more intelligence, rationality and level-headedness, but it's really just intellectual cowardness so that the goal post can always be moved and all roads lead to "I'm right".

Destiny, I got the same sense from him. He presented like a good faith engage-r, but I noticed he too was just a weasley wormy vaush-lite that takes a position only to the extent where he doesn't have to concede anything.

I never got the sense that he was moderate, and his opinions were never intelligent. I'm not sure why the right thought he was decent.

Again, I've always seen him as Vaush-lite. Basically if Vaush cared about optics, you'd have Destiny.