Reply #18: No, I'm a 'figure out what went wrong and what role

[Igel]

everybody played in it", and then I try to figure out how responsible everybody involved really was.

Some people blame everybody equally, regardless of how large a share the group has. I think they're moral cowards.

Some assign blame on how much control they think they have or should have over the people involved, such that any lapse on their part completely absolves nearly everybody else, and they believe themselves usually to be at fault, in some way. I think this group play Grand Inquisitor, and like feeling responsible for others' actions, or confuse themselves with Christ.

Some people always blame others, regardless of how much responsibility the people doing the blaming actually have. This has several subgroups, of which at least one partially overlaps with the previous group. ("Blame America firsters" exist, at least in the right political climate, and fall in this category. The "America firsters" also exist, at least in the right political climate, and also fall in this category. Same game, different end zones.)

I blame mostly the person or group most culpable, which usually involves the more proximal cause. I reject the doctrine of original sin, however it's applied, and don't allow politics to influence my values and ethics. (Once you get into privileging distal causes over proximal causes, then you can frequently make blame serve goals involving not so much morality as other things.)

On edit: stuff in ().