Just as we feel angry at the uneven sidewalk that “causes” us to trip, we humans almost instinctively want to blame misfortune on some factor other than ourselves, since we don’t want to feel shame about making a poor decision.
Toddlers deny eating a cookie with chocolate all over their faces. Adolescents blame their teacher when they fail a class, or their parents when they are caught sneaking out of the house. Adults claim they wouldn’t have cheated if their spouse was more affectionate. We substitute blame for the painful process of taking responsibility for our choices, which limits how much we can learn when those choices lead to bad outcomes.
Our current political landscape illustrates this aspect of human nature, almost comically at times. Donald Trump seems to blame Joe Biden, and lately, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, for anything that isn’t working well in the country, or even in the world. To be fair, those on the left do their share of finger-pointing as well, but Trump has really perfected the blame game. He even blames the messenger, as we see in his tendency to attack and disparage reporters who dare to remind him of unkept promises or contradictions in his rhetoric.
.png)
