Scapegoating is lay psychology’s default explanation for genocide.

Evidence

Why did the Nazis desire to exterminate a whole people? Why, in particular, were the Jews chosen as the primary targets of their aggression? Why did the perpetrators persist and even accelerate their efforts when the war against the Allies was clearly about to be lost? The social-psychological concept most often invoked to answer these questions is scapegoating—the venting of frustrations on an innocent but weak target—a notion that has become part of popular “folk psychology.” — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 721

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines classic scapegoating as venting frustration on an innocent but weak target — the definition Glick’s alternative model will overturn.
• QUESTION: Glick’s three opening questions (why genocide, why the Jews, why persistence to the end) are the target his ideological model must answer.