Even if I wanted to indulge your imaginary belief that I am saying causality isn’t conclusively determinable, my argument would still be okay. Given that I am, unlike you, not burdened by the ridiculous position that that blame must be exclusively placed in a single factor, blame can still be assigned objectively. For example:

“In Summers the plaintiff, Charles A. Summers, accompanied defendants Tice and Simonson on a quail hunt. Plaintiff advanced ahead of the defendants up a hill, creating a triangle among the three men, with plaintiff front and center. The view of both defendants with respect to Summers was unobstructed, and both defendants knew his location, 75 yards from each of them. A quail flew to a 10 foot elevation above the plaintiff’s head (approximately four feet higher than the plaintiff’s head), both defendants shot at the quail, and bird shot struck plaintiff in his right eye and another in his upper lip. Plaintiff sued both defendants for personal injuries. At trial it was established that each of two (2) pellets had caused the injuries to plaintiff’s lip and eye, respectively, and both might have been discharged from one weapon (defendant) or each defendant contributed one of the injuring pellets. The trial court found that the defendants were negligent (i.e., that when they discharged their weapons they did not do so with ordinary prudence), and that the plaintiff was not contributorily negligent.”

I am the one wanting to say that blame should be distributed out between all factors. My position regarding communism is consistent with the position that the cause of death is not indeterminate, but quite clear: both the shooter and the locker had some of the responsibility. Both would at least be guilty of manslaughter, and possibly murder, depending on the country and jurisdiction.

You want to put all the blame in the hands of the shooter and let the locker get off scot-free. That is the only difference between us.

Very different from praising the virtues of arbitrary choice.

“Fallacy of the single cause. If you’re conceding that it is an interaction, I could just as easily pick out one of the other variables to take all the blame. It’s an arbitrary designation.”

Would I be wrong in reading this to mean that blame can’t be determined? That culpability determination is arbitrary? You seem to be saying that by, you know, saying that.

“my position that non-Mendelian agricultural and biological ideas (by the time of the Great Leap Forward, long discredited by the scientific consensus), drought, and communism were all important factors contributing to massive death”

“Mao’s deep distrust of intellectuals and faith in the power of the mass mobilisation of peasants led him to order this massive countrywide effort without consulting expert opinion.” - me quoting wikipedia

“communistic policy… a drought, national disunity and humiliation at the hands of colonial powers lasting over the ~80 years before communism was implemented, and non-mendelian biological and agricultural ideas.”

I did however find this gem of a quote from Steve, when he was trying to side-step having to explain deaths that occurred under a capitalist system: “Its up in the air who is to blame for these deaths”. Sorry Steve, but -you’re- the only one who took the strong position that blame is indeterminable. Hypocrite.

Go ahead and go back and look. I never said that cause was totally indeterminable, just that it involved multiple factors, and that trying to pick out -one- of them to take -all- the blame and -ignoring- the rest isn’t sensible.

Man up to the fact that you’ve lost or put forward an argument that doesn’t require making stuff up about my position.

Man up to your claims or don’t make them. Sheesh.

If all you can do is set up the strawman of someone trying to argue that communism deserves -none- of the blame, then go ahead knock that strawman down. But in regards to the argument I am actually making, you should just freaking forfeit, because if a strawman is the best you can do you have lost. Stop hiding your tree of life in a weird part of the map just to drag things out - it’s bad sportsmanship.