he flip-flopped
You mean flip-flop as in tailoring your position according to the available data? Rather than, say, starting at one ideological position when no data are available, and then resolutely sticking to it come what may, facts and evidence be damned, because the absolute best decision you can ever make is to never ever respond to evidence?
"Flip-flopping" is what science is built upon. Anything else is mindless zealotry.