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Scapegoating
Scapegoating is a troubling concept that plays a significant role in social dynamics and psychology. Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and negative treatment. This often occurs when individuals or groups project their frustrations or failures onto someone else, rather than addressing the root causes of their issues.
It typically involves redirecting negative feelings, such as frustration, shame, envy, guilt, or anger and projecting them onto a vulnerable individual or group. This can create a false sense of relief for the scapegoater, as they temporarily alleviate their own discomfort by blaming someone else.
Scapegoating can occur in various contexts, including families, workplaces, and larger societal groups. It often serves to reinforce group cohesion by uniting members against a common “enemy,” even if that enemy is unjustly targeted.
A tool of government?
Scapegoating is often used by manipulative governments, in conjunction with it’s media outlets and other influencing connections, in order to hide their own negative actions behind what is effectively a “false flag” operation. The strategy is to use the programmed feelings of loyalty and obedience in the population, in order to create distracting social unrest, while, quietly, now hidden from the public eye, more freedoms are removed.
The effects of scapegoating can be quite harmful, leading to emotional distress for the scapegoated individual or group. It can perpetuate cycles of blame and conflict, and even contributes to broader societal issues, such as discrimination or violence.
The term has roots in ancient practices, where a “scapegoat” was literally an animal that carried the sins of the people into the wilderness, symbolizing the transfer of guilt.
Understanding Scapegoating
Understanding scapegoating is crucial for recognizing unhealthy dynamics in relationships and communities.
Scapegoating can manifest in various ways, and understanding these typical observations can help identify unhealthy dynamics in relationships. Here’s a breakdown of how scapegoating is typically observed and how a scapegoat is identified by their accuser:
Typical Ways Scapegoating Can Be Observed
Blame Shifting: The scapegoat is often blamed for problems or failures that are not their fault. This can happen in families, workplaces, or social groups. They can also find that they are set-up to fail, and also, that trying to tell the truth, can become rejected by a wall of lies, further implicating them as now being a liar.
Isolation: The scapegoat may be isolated from others, either socially or emotionally, making them feel alone and unsupported. Isolation may also become the only escape from the toxicity of those trying to police them.
Lack of Recognition: Their achievements or positive contributions are often overlooked or minimized, while their mistakes are highlighted.
Emotional Abuse: Scapegoats may experience verbal or emotional abuse, where they are belittled or demeaned by others. Scapegoats tend to suffer many micro-aggressions, which serve to lower their Window of Tolerance, ultimately to the point of crisis. But the impact of their being targeted, is to remove anything that gives them joy, to encourage depression and hopelessness, to “teach them a lesson”.
Group Dynamics: In group settings, scapegoating can create a false sense of unity among the other members, who bond over their shared blame of the scapegoat. Group members, supporting each other, can become increasingly enthusiastic to harass their scapegoat. It is within such group dynamics that emotional abuse can turn physically destructive and violent.
Dysfunctional Patterns: Scapegoating often occurs in families with dysfunctional dynamics, where one member is consistently made the “identified patient” or the one who is blamed for the family’s issues.
Family Dynamics: Resent research by Self-Transcendence Research suggests that scapegoating is linked to care-givers with attachment related issues, and in some combinations of parental care-givers, at least one scapegoat in the family is guaranteed.
Ostracisation:Â Scapegoats are often driven out of their communities, either physically, by being forced to move elsewhere. Or, they are forced to isolate themselves, putting themselves under house-arrest, in order to avoid further abuse, or it’s escalation.
How a Scapegoat is Identified by Their Accuser
Vulnerability: Scapegoats are often individuals who are perceived as vulnerable or different in some way, making them easy targets for blame. Scapegoats are often selected, due to them being considered “slow”, “less intelligent”, or “weak”.
Projection of Issues: Accusers may project their own insecurities, frustrations, or failures onto the scapegoat, choosing someone who they believe will absorb the blame without retaliating. This projection is far more than a conscious decision to blame someone else for one’s troubles. Often, the scapegoat has triggered a deep seated fear response, driven by the need to avoid being reminded of their own dissociations and related cognitive biases. Carl Jung perhaps understood this ability to project our fears onto others. Robert Calvert suggested that this behaviour is encouraged by governments, in order to create a hidden self-policing, “Self-Police Parade”, of individuals and groups enforcing a hidden, unofficial agenda, in order to disrupt the democratic process.
Reinforcement of Roles: In dysfunctional families, roles are often established, and the scapegoat is identified based on their consistent position within these roles, such as being the “troublemaker” or “problem child.”
Lack of Support: The accuser may identify the scapegoat because they lack a support system, making it easier to blame them without facing pushback.
Group Consensus: Sometimes, scapegoating is reinforced by group dynamics, where others in the group agree with the accuser, further solidifying the scapegoat’s role.
A career from childhood: Usually, the family scapegoat is the youngest one in the family. Over time, they increasingly become “the one to blame”, for anything and everything. Their brothers and sisters, will then seed this blame giving into their friends, and the scapegoat finds that being the scapegoat becomes extended to the outside world.
Understanding these dynamics can be crucial for addressing and mitigating the harmful effects of scapegoating.
The motivations behind Scapegoating
Lets delve into the motivations behind scapegoating, as it often reveals complex and sometimes unconscious psychological processes. Here are some key reasons why individuals or organizations might shift blame onto another target:
Protecting Ego and Avoiding Responsibility
Personal Insecurity: Scapegoating can be a way to protect one’s ego and avoid taking responsibility for their own actions or failures. Blaming someone else makes them feel less guilty and allows them to maintain a sense of self-worth. confidence and esteem.
Fear of Consequences: Shifting blame can be a way to avoid potential consequences, such as punishment, loss of status, or social ostracism.
Undermining Social Status: Very often, scapegoating is used in order to embarrass or humiliate and individual in public. Over the long-term this can have serious impacts of social status and career, and it is often because others covet that status, and are jealous.
Maintaining Group Cohesion and Identity
Shared Enemy: Scapegoating can create a sense of unity and shared purpose within a group by uniting them against a common “enemy.” This can be particularly powerful in times of stress or uncertainty.
Out-Group Differentiation: Scapegoating can help a group define its own identity by distinguishing itself from an “out-group” that is seen as inferior or threatening.
Forcing incongruent and irrational beliefs: Often a group united against a scapegoat, are much more susceptible to manipulation, via the adoption of false beliefs. For example, a cult, may, during a group event, identify a common “enemy”, and position them as doing “the Devil’s work”, then use behavioural programming through repetition, cause the audience to overlay on that new enemy, all of the symbolic meaning of the “Devil” that has been programmed into them. Thus, in that circle of “repentant sinners”, “killing” that Devil, can become a holy mission.
Psychological Defence Mechanisms
Projection: Scapegoating can be a form of projection, where individuals unconsciously attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to another person. This can be a way to avoid confronting their own internal conflicts.
Displacement: Scapegoating can also be a form of displacement, where individuals redirect their anger or frustration from the true source onto a more vulnerable target. For example, a military veteran has been programmed to have complete loyalty for the crown and government. But when they leave the forces, this programming is left in place. As a result, when they become a civilian, and experience civilian life, they are unable to blame or hold the crown or government accountable for any negative impacts of their decisions and actions. This drives a need to find scapegoats, to identify any other enemy to blame, rather than the actual source of their pain. Those same people are also trained to do just that: They listen to those government media messages, and take that as guidance, on who they should blame. Do not mistake any political party, for what you might think of as the government.
Power Dynamics
Control and Domination: Scapegoating can be a way for individuals or groups with power to maintain control and dominance over others. By blaming a weaker target, they can reinforce their own authority and legitimize their actions.
Exploitation: Scapegoating can be a tool for exploitation, where individuals or groups are unfairly targeted for their resources, labour, or social status.
People-Policing: Unofficial groups can become vigilante like in their operations against individuals or targeted group. Such groups often consider themselves outside of the law, and feel they are needed, to maintain their concept of order. They can form the basis of the Self-Police Parade.
Understanding these motivations can help us recognize and challenge scapegoating in its various forms. It’s important to remember that scapegoating is a complex phenomenon with multifaceted causes, and addressing it requires a nuanced and empathetic approach.
Scapegoating and deception
Scapegoating can be a way to reinforce deception, both on a personal and a larger societal level.
On the Personal Level
Self-Deception: By blaming someone else, individuals can convince themselves that they are not responsible for their own mistakes or shortcomings. This can be a form of self-deception that allows them to maintain a positive self-image.
Rationalizing Behaviour: Scapegoating can also help individuals rationalize their own unethical or harmful behaviour. If they can blame someone else, they can avoid taking responsibility for their actions and maintain a sense of moral righteousness.
Societal Level
Distraction: Scapegoating can be used as a tool to distract people from larger issues or injustices. By focusing attention on a scapegoat, individuals and groups can avoid confronting systemic problems or their own complicity in those problems.
Maintaining Power Structures: Scapegoating can be used to reinforce existing power structures and hierarchies. By blaming marginalized groups, dominant groups can maintain their control and privilege.
Examples
Political Campaigns: Scapegoating is often used in political campaigns to demonize opponents and rally support for a particular candidate. This can involve blaming immigrants for economic problems, or blaming a particular political party for social unrest.
Social Media: Scapegoating is also prevalent on social media, where individuals can easily spread misinformation and target individuals or groups for blame. This can contribute to the spread of hate speech and prejudice.
Breaking the Cycle
It’s crucial to be aware of the ways in which scapegoating is used to reinforce deception. By recognizing these patterns, we can challenge them and work to create a more just and equitable society.
Personal Growth as a Trigger for Scapegoating
There is a classic scenario where someone’s personal growth can trigger defensiveness and even scapegoating in another person. Here’s how that dynamic might play out:
The Trigger
Threat to Ego: When someone shares their journey of self-discovery and reinterpretation of past mistakes, it can be a threat to the ego of someone who hasn’t done the same work. It can make them feel inadequate, especially if they’ve tried something similar and “failed.”
Uncomfortable Truth: The other person’s success in reinterpreting their past can also expose a painful truth about their own inaction or self-deception. It might force them to confront their own shortcomings and the reasons they haven’t been able to move forward.
Defence Mechanisms
Projection: Instead of acknowledging their own feelings of inadequacy, the other person might project those feelings onto the person who is sharing their growth. They might accuse them of being arrogant, self-righteous, or trying to make them feel bad.
Scapegoating: To avoid confronting their own internal struggles, they might blame the other person for their own failure. They might say things like, “You’re just lucky,” or “You’re making it seem easy, but it’s not really.”
The Result
Avoidance: By scapegoating the other person, the individual avoids having to deal with their own emotional discomfort and the need to change. They might distance themselves from the person who triggered their defensiveness or even engage in further negative behaviour.
Missed Opportunity: The scapegoating dynamic ultimately prevents both individuals from truly benefiting from the other’s growth. It creates a barrier to genuine connection and support.
Key Takeaways
Self-Awareness: It’s crucial to be aware of our own potential for defensiveness and projection. When someone shares their personal growth, it’s important to listen with an open mind and avoid making it about ourselves.
Compassion: It’s also important to have compassion for others who might be struggling with their own internal conflicts. Their behaviour might be a reflection of their own pain and insecurities.
Gratitude, and Gratitude in the Moment: One of the most overlooked, but most powerful mindsets for resilience, is via the adoption of a gratitude mindset, especially gratitude in the moment, with can, in itself, lead to peak-growth.
Growth Mindset: Ultimately, the best way to avoid falling into scapegoating is to cultivate a growth mindset. This means embracing the idea that we are all on a journey of learning and development, and that setbacks are opportunities for growth.
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