I actually see this recent change of events as a new set of actions from the wiley CT crowd. If you recall they had a convo over at LC where they determined that "Gravy" was supposedly the only thing holding all of us together, and that without him, none of us could function as debunkers etc...
Now, all of a sudden, Russ has "changed" his tactics, and like PD and others had suggested, they are going after the person they percieve as our "ring leader" to try and discredit him.
Unfortunately, for them, Mark relies on facts, printed articles, real expert opinions, and witness testimony, so to discredit him will be a monumental, if not impossible task.
a shame they have resorted to attacking the messenger...but not unexpected.
TAM
In my opinion, it isn't a
change on Russell's part so much as it is that he initially concealed the depth of his delusional tinhat beliefs, and once he demonstrated by his posts here that there is very little difference between him and the looniest of CTers, he simply
reverted to the usual CT form of "debate", which is to obfuscate, move goalposts, change the subject, avoid answering legitimate questions, attack the messenger when you can't attack the message, cherry pick, quote mine, feign indignance, rely upon shoddy research, etc.
In other words, I agree with you that this is a change
in tactics on Russell's part here, but I think that he is firmly cut from the same old CT cloth and has always engaged in many of the same disingenuous and dishonest methods as outlined above; he merely tried for a while not to appear quite as deluded as most of the other CTers, and for a while did not utilize some of those methods overtly - at least not on this site, although his own website certainly shows that he has been utilizing many of them for quite some time.
That said, I think you are right about the timing and impetus of Russell's new favourite pastime of posturing in a manner that he probably believes gives him credence with tinhatters watching his lame attempts to take on Gravy, (although I suspect that deep down, he realizes that anyone with half a brain or more who reads these threads recognizes how lame his attempts are, and recognizes that he hasn't made even the slightest dent in Gravy's facts, evidence, research, presentations, etc.)
Once he realized that, around here, people expect facts and evidence instead of tired, old, long-debunked nonsense, he found himself with no other recourse but to revert to other methods of attack, and it appears that he then just jumped on the latest tinhat bandwagon with his LC pals like Doherty and his various sockpuppets who advocated trying to discredit Gravy.
Unfortunately for Russell and the LC crew, they are grossly ill-equipped for the task.
Also, unfortunately for the tinhatters, they do not realize that critical thinkers do not rely upon "ringleaders" in order to draw reasonable conclusions about the true state of affairs. While we certainly appreciate and admire the extensive work and research done by Gravy and others, we are not blind followers of anyone. Unlike CTers.
Also unlike CTers, we insist upon facts and evidence, and we assess the facts and evidence presented, no matter who they are presented by.
