"oh my god! are you seriously going to be blame me for something that everybody did too? you didn't even know him! you don't even know what people are like before they abstract!"
one of the most popular theories to come out of episode 6 is that ribbit might've been a terrible influence on jax -- that ribbit was the jax of the group before he abstracted. while it's not a terrible theory, i just don't think it makes sense based on everything we've been provided in this episode.
jax's coping mechanism -- pushing people away by behaving like an asshole, and dehumanizing the other characters so that he doesn't get "too attached" in the event that they will eventually abstract -- comes from a fear of abstracting himself. this is something he's doing to protect his own sanity, to prevent himself from fully going off the deep end when he loses yet another friend he allowed himself to care for. so if that kind of attitude is what made ribbit abstract, i don't think he'd really follow that path knowingly? even when pomni brings up that his mindset might be what causes people to abstract, i don't think she meant it as him being the reason for ribbit and kaufmo's downfalls. she meant that the route jax was taking to cope would only result in him abstracting, keeping in mind what kinger said about how "making someone feel unwanted/unloved is the worst thing you can do in the circus" and how jax's actions only lead to him being further isolated.
if anything, ribbit probably cared too much about the others to the point where it cost them everything in the end. which is probably why jax dislikes this attribute in ragatha, because it reminds him of a friend he once lost and he knows the consequences of it. from what we can tell from kaufmo's abstraction and gangle's near-abstraction, there is usually some kind of mental descent involved. right before it happens, we see the characters increasingly losing their minds. so what if jax started seeing these negative traits in ribbit more often and started distancing himself from them? their last interaction ever was probably a huge argument, which could explain why jax is attempting to cope the way that he is: coping with the death of a loved one is 1,000 times harder when your last interaction with them was negative. you're left behind with a lot of guilt, and no proper way of having full closure/forgiveness until you begin the first steps of a healing journey.
