i don’t understand what you mean by “swerved” here

we spent several weeks not really responding, and meanwhile people just continued to spread the callout. all the while no one had any definitive ammo to use against it.

now that the rebuttal exists, its existence is “evidence” that we are trying to hide something, because who would go to so much effort to show that something is false??

i don’t see what you think the winning move was here