Pattern family
A decision or a harm gets described so that no one in particular made it. The passive voice, a disposable scapegoat, or an abstraction like the market, the algorithm, or the vacuum where oversight should have been, absorbs the responsibility a specific person or institution actually held.
Abdication framing
Public discourseYou were not told what to think. You were told the question was above your pay grade, and you agreed, and that settled it.
Agency diffusion
Public discourseThe harm happened. Nobody did it. The sentence was built so the verb had no owner.
Automation alibi
Platforms and algorithmsThe system made the call, not me.
Blame concentration
Public discourseOne person took the fall. The system stayed standing. The scapegoat was load-bearing.
Algorithmic discrimination
Platforms and algorithmsThe decision was automated. The bias was not.
Institutional capture
Public discourseNo conspiracy is required. A vacuum is.