And he'll find little disagreement from me over what the current group of EA members will say, which says nothing at all about what the group of EA members -after- a successful advertising campaign aimed at increasing membership substantially will say, and at which point the EA movement is, by my view, effectively destroyed, even if it doesn't know it yet.

My unwillingness to accept a strawman in place of the positions I have actually stated does not constitute shifting goalposts. But that's irrelevant, compared to the larger mistake you're making, in trying to utilize this technique.

A lesson in Dark Arts: I am Nobody. I could delete this account right now, start over from scratch, and lose nothing but some karma points I don't care about. You, however, are a Somebody. Your account is linked to your identity. Anybody who cares to know who you are, can know who you are. Anybody who already knows who you are can find out what you say here.

As a Somebody, you have credibility. As a Nobody, I have none. So in a war of discrediting - you discredit me, I discredit you - I lose nothing. What do you lose?

Your identify gives you credibility. But it also gives you something to lose. My lack of identity means any credit I gain or lose here is totally meaningless. But it means I have nothing to lose. That means that our credibility disparity is precisely mirrored by a power disparity; one in your favor, the other in mine. But the credibility disparity lasts only until you let yourself be mired in credibility-destroying tactics.

You really shouldn't engage anybody, much less me, in a Dark Arts competition. Indeed, it's vaguely foolish of you to have admitted to the practice of Dark Arts in the first place.