Whoever else he has been, he is not and never has been me, and I am not and never have been him.
What drives people to this incessant speculation?
What are their imaginations conjuring up which deludes them into thinking it's true?
What's the point of it? How does it benefit the forum? How does it contribute to the intelligent and rational debate of topics?
It doesn't benefit the forum.
It appears to be caused by an individual's selfish behaviour. Sometimes it's someone just wanting to "wind people up" and take pleasure from that, but more insidiously, it can be through an individual's delusions.
Some of the latter have attributes which lead them to put the importance of their own personal use of the forum above the that of the benefit to the various users. So they display characteristic behaviours. Those tend to be arrogant and objectonable to the masses but the individual feels justified, because he is blinded by his self-importance. Typically it's to satisfy a "life script" which he may (as with a religion) or may not (as with any maladaptive behaviour) be aware of.
In the latter case, (and I do recall the former) the individual tends to get thrown off a forum. Their own imagination tells them they're being "rational and intelligent" as you put it, whereas others see them as being self-serving t055ers who are general PITA. Like a spotty youth who sees his opinion as important so always has an urge to say something. In fact of course, his youth comes with a lack of wisdom. What he says may have an element of being "right", but he's not worth wasting time on, to explain why he's showing t055er behaviour, or correct. His constant ill considered rhetoric is nearly always of no value.
"Correcting" someone (ie seeking to impose the individual's own skewed opinion) can however be obligatory to that second category of individual. So when he's thrown off, he has an urge to come back. This helps with his need to be heard and feel important, and he probably sees himself as a benefit to the forum.
Thus we see the same objectionable people coming back time and time again. They're parasites, deriving sustenance at everyone else's expense;
a blight on any forum, and humanity in general.
Characteristic behaviour can be the stream of multiple posts we see where they take every phrase that someone has posted, and find an objection to it, just like the spotty youth.
All too often it goes with repeated derogatory remarks about a forum member, or some, or even ALL forum members!
Now, who does that?