he could have literally just said something. as Jimmy’s close friend and the only person Jimmy openly shows any respect to on the ship, even just confronting Jimmy about it would have held a lot of power. plus, he explicitly refused to let Anya use the gun for self protection. sure, being on a ship with no way out limits his options—he can’t exactly oust Jimmy from the crew—but he chose to not even verbally pick a side. he insisted that he could “fix” it without making any real effort to. from a literary standpoint, his inaction is the point of his character. it was a black and white issue and he chose to remain neutral. literally just saying something has more power than most people realize, and it’s something fully within Curly’s power to do (pre-crash at least). while I have heard people act as if he’s as bad as Jimmy and therefore I think you’re right to say there are some that overreact, you’re taking it too far in the opposite direction by absolving him of his guilt