The most common way of assuaging one's guilt is to project that guilt onto the victim, thereby relieving (however temporarily) the uncomfortable feelings associated with that guilt. One of the most basic human drives is to avoid pain, both physical and emotional, and the human brain is well-equipped for self-delusion in order to satisfy that drive. Blaming the victim is one way in which humans accomplish that.

For example, in this country, one of the biggest scapegoats is the poor. Rather than examine the uncomfortable truths surrounding the systemic poverty that permeates our world, many of which reveal our own complicity, we relieve our guilt by blaming the victims. It is much easier to dismiss these people as being morally inferior than it is to acknowledge the corruption, greed, selfishness, and indifference that has caused it.

To make matters worse, these myths about the poor are endlessly perpetuated in the media, which of course is controlled by those very individuals who have contributed so greatly to these conditions, and who derive such great benefit (both psychological and financial) from their perpetuation. As a result, average Americans are led to believe these myths, and because we are trained from a young age to defer to various authorities for the "truth", we assume that because it's on CNN and Fox, that it must be true. Further, often times the victims themselves are conditioned to believe that they are to blame for their circumstances, rather than being victims of institutionalized racism, sexism, and classism.

In reality, over 90% of the "lazy welfare bums" in most states are dependent children of fathers who have abandoned them and the spouses or partners of those same men. In addition, most of those men are not "lazy"; most of them earn enough income to contribute, but they don't. Also, most people who live below the poverty line receive no welfare money at all because they work full-time, but still don't make enough to pay their bills. And most food stamp recipients come from households in which at least one member works full-time, but they still don't make enough money to escape poverty.

The vast majority of people aren't lazy; they want to work and be productive members of society and facilitate happiness and stability for themselves and their families, and most of the ones who don't suffer from alcoholism, mental illness, drug addiction, and other afflictions that have resulted in their being abandoned by society, at least in this country, where the primary social safety net is the prison system. Those who suggest otherwise might examine their own reasons for ascribing such falsely cynical motives to those who have the same basic human needs and desires as themselves.