Why would s/he be kidding? If his "nature" was evil, his upbringing wouldn't have mattered and neither would've Picard's, so they'd essentially be the same. Other than a common taste for tea and perhaps some innate level of high intelligence, the two were worlds apart in their behavior. Even the way they channeled and developed their intellect(s) was different: military strategist v. diplomat/philosopher/explorer.
When we see two characters with identical genes (identical natures) and such divergent acculturations (mine shafts v. wine vineyards; slavery v. freedom), it's a testament to how environment/nurture ultimately shapes personality and behavior, and to how inherent natural traits (e.g., genes that make one prone to violence) are either activated or suppressed depending on environmental exposure.
By failing to recognize this, the Romulan elite would be absolved from any responsibility for the creation of Shinzon (not the cloning itself, but "creation" as in the person shaped by their systemic exploitation) or from the actions of the Remans in general. Conservatives (i.e., reactionaries) specialize in putting all of the onus for an individual's actions solely upon that individual as if we each exist in a vacuum, thus atomizing individual actors and downplaying the very same status quo systemic factors that they seek to perpetuate. It's a fine line between blaming the victim for his/her own oppression on one hand, and promoting a culture of victimization on the other; unfortunately most people are either firmly in one camp or the other, when the "objective" reality is a sythesis somewhere in the middle.
Romulans put Remans into a subjugated status and debilitating environment, warping their development, and then no doubt turned around and indicted them as being innately inferior and therefore deserving of their own subservience on that "black rock they came from." [Did Remans evolve naturally or were they the product of genetic manipulation/artificial selection?] Anyway, had Earth been destroyed in Nemesis and Shinzon captured, he should've stood trial along side the entire Romulan elite, who would be held partly responsible for the product of their environment (Shinzon) and the NATURE of their system and their social constructions. To mis-attribute Shinzon's actions to his own innate evil ignores the evil of the system that shaped and defined him.
I actually think Logan kind of copped-out and undercut, or ignored, my points when he wrote Data's oversimplified, if not totally individualist, explanation that he and Picard seek to improve themselves while B-4 and Shinzon do not. Shouldn't an android be able to analyze causal factors and "human nature" better than this?
Well, I can only hope Nero is at least as complex as Shinzon, whom I obviously feel is a fascinating character, albeit in a poorly conceptualized and executed movie.
