We are all familiar with the scapegoat (Lev. 16:10): a person or group on which all problems including the weather are blamed, and which can then be “cast into the desert”. Jews and/or Israel often find themselves cast in this role; but anybody who has ever worked in a corporate of military setting has seen this happen to some manager or other.
In many cases, the bad things the scapegoat is accused for aren’t just factually wrong, but logically incoherent and/or physically impossible. (And yes, I’ve seen this in US politics on my own side — fodder for another post.) In many cases, if the scapegoat didn’t exist somebody would have to invent it.
But the scapegoat has a mirror image: that which Thomas Sowell in his many writings terms a “mascot”. In short, a mascot is an “oppressed” group whose cause one champions, not because one cares for the members…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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