Among other things, Jim explicitly acknowledged that he was ignoring JF, and he explained why. For better or worse, he went on record with an explanation, so that tempered a lot of criticism he might have otherwise faced (setting aside the fact that Jim didn’t closely associate with JF, and far fewer people know or care about JF).
On top of that, Jim was absent for over a year, during a time when Ralph was especially active. Ergo, people want to hear him talk about Ralph’s fuck ups, not Mersh. If that annoys Jim, well... maybe Ralph shouldn’t go around trying to drum up negative BS everywhere he goes. You can add Jim to the list of people who are affected negatively by knowing Ethan Ralph.
I’m sure he’s got some reason for not wanting to talk about Ralph, and it’s probably something innocuous. Maybe he just doesn’t feel like it. But at some point, if you don’t listen to your audience, they stop listening to you. And I really hope Jim doesn’t end up in a situation like Spoony or Wings, where he ends up resenting his chat because it’s overrun with people calling him a guntguarding faggot. That would be the sad ending.
I’m of the opinion that Jim will ultimately BTFO Ralph, in an entertaining way which Ralph cannot recover from. Whatever’s holding him back, he’ll get past it. I am an optimist.