# Scapegoating

> Scapegoating is mapped as the people named: it constructs a morally charged people against an elite, outsider, or betrayer.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Stable ID | `node:kiduna:political-change:populism-nationalism:scapegoating` |
| Family | Populism & Nationalism |
| Domain | Ideology |
| Kind | formation |
| Archetypal function | The People Named |
| Epistemic status | synthesis; supported |

## Concrete anchor

Scapegoating belongs to the **Populism & Nationalism** family. It is treated as a specific political object, role, institution, tactic, event, ideology, or mechanism before any symbolic transfer is made.

## What it does

Scapegoating constructs a morally charged people against an elite, outsider, or betrayer, changing who can act, what becomes visible, and which costs are distributed to others.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Scapegoating, while shifting cost, delay, risk, exclusion, or dependence toward actors with less authority, information, organization, money, or safe access. The distribution is conditional, not an essence of the node.

## Archetypal function

**The People Named.** Scapegoating is mapped as the people named: it constructs a morally charged people against an elite, outsider, or betrayer.

## Gift

can mobilize excluded constituencies and challenge unaccountable elites; through Scapegoating, that capacity becomes available for deliberate use.

## Wound / Shadow

turns plural societies into one authentic people and scapegoated enemies; Scapegoating can then reproduce the very arrangement it claims to change.

## Conditions

- scale and jurisdiction are explicit
- affected people and absent stakeholders are named
- time horizon and countermoves are considered

## Strategic meaning

Use Scapegoating to identify the operative target, resource, dependency, decision forum, and likely countermove. Ask what would make the mechanism stronger, weaker, more legitimate, or less necessary.

## Divinatory meaning

The People Named enters through Scapegoating. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** What changes when Scapegoating becomes the unit of analysis rather than background?

## Game function

**resource.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Scapegoating; another player names a countermove. Initiative 3.

## Relationships

- **legitimizes — Sovereignty Politics:** Sovereignty Politics legitimizes Scapegoating by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **mobilizes — Culture War:** Scapegoating mobilizes Culture War by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(synthesis; supported)_
- **legitimizes — New Left:** New Left legitimizes Scapegoating by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **depends on — Single Transferable Vote:** Scapegoating depends on Single Transferable Vote by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Scapegoating from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Scapegoating is an effect of the system it appears to drive?
- Change the clock: what looks different over a day, an election cycle, a generation, and a century?
- Ask when the Gift becomes the Wound through scale, secrecy, intensity, latency, or unequal reciprocity.

## Epistemic and Sentinel note

Claim layers: synthesis, interpretive, symbolic_divinatory. Scope, jurisdiction, period, and source perspective may change the claim.
No node-specific Sentinel factors were recorded; ordinary source, audience, and context checks still apply.

## Visual direction

A text-free enamel expression of Scapegoating: one dominant mechanism, one counterforce, raised warm-metal linework, midnight field, restrained civic red, teal, ivory, and amber. No party logo, national flag, sacred symbol, or recognizable person.

## Research / provenance

- [Introduction to Political Science](https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science) — OpenStax, 2022. Comparative institutions, political behavior, and public policy foundations.
- [2024 Republican Party Platform](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform) — Republican National Committee, 2024. Party self-description and program; not an external assessment.
- [Donald J. Trump Platform](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform) — Donald J. Trump campaign, 2024. Campaign self-description and policy claims; claims require independent verification.
- [President Donald J. Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/donald-j-trump/) — White House, 2026. Official biography and administration self-description; evaluative claims are attributed to the administration.
- [Fascism](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/fascism-1) — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2019. Historically bounded definition and features; avoid use as a generic insult.

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Engine Output version 1.0.0; generated 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z. Sentinel annotations are stored separately in `sentinel/handoffs.json`.
