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I agree it would be very difficult to establish as a fact that the behaviour of motorists towards cyclists is affected by the conduct of cyclists - as I said above, the question of fact (would motorists behave better if cyclists behaved better) is basically just opinion and anecdotal evidence. If the argument is 'do what you like, it won't make any difference' then it just one person's opinion against another.
However, I understood the argument to be a more profound one, which was that even if the conduct of one cyclist does have an effect on the behaviour of motorists towards other cyclists, the consequences of the motorists' behaviour is not attributable to the one hypothetical cyclist. Although I can see the argument, I have difficulties with it.
Anyway, back to work.
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Brommers
edscoble
In what way would those actions be foreseeable? You are, I'm guessing, probably no better than the rest of us at predicting the future.
Even post-fact, you couldn't show a causative link, given the degree of hindsight bias and confirmation bias that would exist.
Which is why the argument is always specious, and very often facile.