What do you call someone who always puts blame on others?

Question

No matter what had really happened, this person will always blame and find an appearing logical/thought out way/strategy to it that, fundamentally, it's the other person who was the cause for all the trouble AND everything else that came from this trouble as well and from the next and so on.

No (slang) words like "jerk", "*sshole" etc. please.

I'd be quite happy with He's a buck-passer, but that seems to have surprisingly little currency. — FumbleFingers, Jul 18 '14 at 19:52
Often, such a person is called a "manager" or a "politician". — Dan, Jul 19 '14 at 04:12
@FumbleFingers Buck-passer relies on the person having had 'the buck' not just on dishing out blame (where the 'disher' is not to blame) — Frank, Jul 20 '14 at 07:29
@Frank: I suppose much depends on whether the person concerned is already being blamed by others (and trying to pass the buck, re-assign blame/responsibility to someone else), or simply likes finding other people to blame regardless of whether he personally might otherwise be "in the frame". In the latter case, I'd just say he's a *shit-stirrer*. — FumbleFingers, Jul 20 '14 at 12:31

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '19 at 01:43

13

Blameshifter fits the bill.

blameshifting

Part of Speech: n

Definition: the act of transferring responsibility for an error or problem to another; also written blame shifting

_{Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon}

edited Mar 20 '19 at 01:43

Laurel

66,382

answered Jul 18 '14 at 22:22

GMB

5,529

There is no such word from what I gather. Can anyone provide a dictionary reference for the word "blameshifter"? – aaa90210 Jul 20 '14 at 21:12
Fair enough. I only documented blameshifting. – GMB Jul 20 '14 at 22:48
"blameshifter" is someone doing the blameshifting. :-) – Peter M. - stands for Monica Apr 06 '18 at 20:53

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 18 '14 at 22:20

10

a finger-pointer - someone quick to divert attention or blame to someone else
defensive (though that's more general than just blaming others)

answered Jul 18 '14 at 22:20

Drew

15,241

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 18 '14 at 21:28

9

A 'blamer'. It's slang for someone who always blames others. e.g. 'My mother was a blamer from her early teens.' It tends to be applied to senior citizens. I don't make these things up. There seems to be a correlation between chronic intermeddlers (yentas) and chronic blamers. Often the blamer and the yenta are the same person.

edited Jul 18 '14 at 21:28

anongoodnurse

55,278

answered Jul 18 '14 at 20:49

user3847

2,495

Julian Teasure in a Ted talk entitled "How to speak so that people want to listen" coins the word "blamethrower" for that kind of people. – user58319 Feb 01 '17 at 10:21

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 16 '16 at 11:27

That person is 'an adept at scapegoating'.

scapegoat (ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt )

Definitions

noun

a person made to bear the blame for others

(Old Testament) a goat used in the ritual of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16); it was symbolically laden with the sins of the Israelites and sent into the wilderness to be destroyed

verb

(transitive) to make a scapegoat of

Word Origin C16: from escape + goat, coined by William Tyndale to translate Biblical Hebrew azāzēl (probably) goat for Azazel, mistakenly thought to mean 'goat that escapes'

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/scapegoat

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 19 '14 at 05:39

3

I would say buck-passer is correct.

Anther class of idioms for someone who is difficult to blame involves variations around the word "teflon"

"He wears a teflon coat"

"He is made from teflon"

Because nothing (including blame) sticks to teflon. However, this does not necessarily involve the subject shifting blame, they just somehow always escape blame somehow or other.

answered Jul 19 '14 at 05:39

aaa90210

2,305

'Buckpasser' doesn't work: it simply means to pass (usually work) onto other people, when you should do it yourself. It's not specific enough for blaming other for things. 'Blameshifter' works better, or 'rationalizer', although I don't know there's a single word for all the things the OP is trying to describe. – Pete855217 Jul 20 '14 at 06:59
@Pete855217 I disagree, I think it means to pass blame or responsibility onto someone else. I have never even heard of the word "blameshifter" being used to describe someone - it sounds like a made up word. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/buck-passer – aaa90210 Jul 20 '14 at 07:25
-1 for Buckpasser, you can only be a buck-passer if you have the buck. Simply blaming someone isn't passing the buck. @Pete855217 I agree with aaa90201, buck-passing is passing blame onto someone else (when you have the blame on yourself). Where is it common to mean 'passing work that should do yourself to other people'? – Frank Jul 20 '14 at 07:32

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

1

Consider, blame artist

Man has forever been a blame artist. We specialize in blaming others for our personal failures and even our individual irresponsibility. To the extent that even when a man has run down into a state no different from a carriage horse only good enough for haulage, he fails to recognize that. Instead he continues to see the other man plowing by hand as the slave. The hassle between the slave, servant and master is longstanding.

Tug of War

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Mar 16 '16 at 09:37

Elian

43,007

1

You could call someone that who manages to be appear blameless (not getting the blame). But "artful dodger" is inappropriate for a person who always blames others. In italian we call him a scaricabarile and here http://dizionari.repubblica.it/Italiano-Inglese/S/scaricabarile.php – Mari-Lou A Mar 16 '16 at 09:53
1

@Mari-LouA In French, we say "renvoyer la balle" http://www.wordreference.com/fren/renvoyer%20la%20balle – Elian Mar 16 '16 at 10:13

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 18 '14 at 19:46

-1

Perhaps rationalizer? According to ODO, rationalize means

Attempt to explain or justify (one’s own or another’s behavior or attitude) with logical, plausible reasons, even if these are not true or appropriate

answered Jul 18 '14 at 19:46

bib

72,782

But even if you're, without blame involved, try to to think logically about things you're a rationalizer as well, right? Isn't rationalizer easily to be confused with simply thinking logically without anything else, like blame? – user76935 Jul 18 '14 at 20:00
1

While one of the meanings of rationalize is to think logically about something, it is more often used to describe a process that strains logic to find justification. It also can be used for tortured explanations even when there is no specific blame involved. – bib Jul 18 '14 at 20:08
1

As someone has said, rationalization is the skin of reason stuffed with a lie. – GMB Jul 18 '14 at 22:16

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 05 '16 at 15:38

-1

Some really good ones! Projection definitely but very clinical?

Shortest word for me, avoider. Of their own responsibility of their behaviour.

answered Dec 05 '16 at 15:38

Stephen Tierney

29

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed. – NVZ Dec 05 '16 at 16:09
It has context. People who project blame onto other people are avoiding something. Either taking responsibility for their own fault or behaviour. Projection is a more clinical term for it. There are also some very long explanations I was simply adding a short alternative. – Stephen Tierney Dec 05 '16 at 16:33

score -4 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 19 '14 at 15:07

Well, unfortunately, to so cleverly dodge responsibility/blame AND effectively shift it onto someone else, (and let's just call it like it is without the sugarcoating - that's lying; the worst kind), is a component of the group of behaviors associated with sociopathy - especially when this behavior is the norm, (chronic), and not the exception. It is plausible, even likely, this person is a sociopath. At the very least, he/she is 'borderline'.

What do you call someone who always puts blame on others?

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