History Main / SocietyIsToBlame

* Played with in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', during a conversation between Naruto and his father about Pain. They agree that while Pain was a natural product of the wars and the Ninja system, he is still fully responsible for his own actions since his revenge shows no regard for his victims' guilt or innocence.
** Really, this is the backdrop behind pretty much every villain in the series, at least the ones that aren't just plain AxCrazy. Orochimaru was orphaned by the ninja wars, and thus sought ways to conquer death that led him off into inhuman territory. Gaara was a TykeBomb designed by his father who just snapped under the social pressure of being a [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer complete pariah.]] Itachi was really screwed up by torn loyalties, Pain was corrupted by the futility of constant war, and even the main villains of the entire series were messed up by clan warfare and the casualties of war. The series does not claim that their actions are justified because of that, but the messed-up system of the shinobi world is shown to be responsible for many of the monstrosities.

* This is pretty much the main theme of ''Film/Joker2019'', with Arthur Fleck even outright stating this during his climactic MotiveRant towards the film's end:

* ''Series/ColdCase'' mixes this with an economy-sized {{deconstruction}} of GoodOldWays. Expect at least five episodes a season or more to make the ''era'' of the murder the true villain, particularly when it comes to issues of race or sexuality. The episode "Best Friends," with an interracial female-female romance in the 1920s, plays both factors for everything it's worth.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:While the show never uses it as a justification for their actions, it’s made blatantly clear that the society of Gravesflield did played a big role for how Luz Noceda and Philip Witterbane (a.k.a. Emperor Belos) turned out as people. During their puritan days, they turned a very impressionable, orphaned child into a genocidal, centuries old zealot towards witches, who was not above at killing other humans who stand in his way, including his older brother. As for Luz, they did nothing to support her and her mother after her father died of a terminal illness, nor to defend her from her peers and grownups’s scorn because of her weird personality. They intervened only when her recklessness got out of control, and even then, they peerpressured her mother to send Luz into a “normal camp”, because they didn’t want to deal with her issues and weren’t willing to accept her weirdness. It’s no wonder that as result Luz has a very low opinion towards her fellow humans (except her mom) compared to the witches and demons from the Boiling Isles.]]

-->"We're not bad/We're really good/We just had a bad childhood..."

--->We're no good, we're no good, we're no earthly good\\

--->Eek! \\

* ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', especially ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', often uses this. We wrap up the A plot more quickly than usual, find out that Johnny did it and the jury agrees... but our heroes realize that it's not really Johnny's fault and strike back against the corporate overlord / gang / societal disease that "made him do it".

-->'''Michael''': Body image. We are here because there is something wrong with society.\\
'''Jim''': See, you're always saying there's something wrong with society, but... maybe there's something wrong with you.\\
'''Michael''': If it's me, then society made me that way.

--->'''Calvin:''' I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Madison Avenue and Hollywood, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak!

* This seems to be the play's message regarding Jean Valjean and many other people in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. Valjean only stole to feed his sister's family, and got five years in prison. The conditions were so brutal he tried to escape multiple times, with each extending his sentence. When he's paroled at last after ''nineteen'' years, he finds it impossible to find work as a felon. He is so suspicious and hardened that even when someone ''does'' try to assist him (a [[GoodShepherd kindly priest]]) Valjean instead steals his silver. The priest, instead of sending him back to prison when he's caught, instead covers for him, giving Valjean a second chance. Once removed from this state, he becomes a successful businessman and town mayor, but only by breaking parole. Thus he's pursued by {{Inspector Javert}}, who only cares that he broke the law, which leads Valjean into further crime to escape. It's also echoed by Fantine, who's dismissed from her job when it's found out she's an unwed mother and forced into prostitution to survive. She's arrested for striking a man harassing her, catches a fever, and dies. Javert on the other hand firmly believes this is wrong, but rather crime isn't the result of environment ''or'' heredity (especially the latter he's keen to disprove, as both his parents were criminals). When it's finally proven to him that Valjean is a good man, he can't stand the revelation, [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself]].

-->'''Carl''': I've got nowhere to go. I burned my house down once it had enough swans inside, and I used up the rest of my savings buying the swans.\\
'''Paul''': And whose fault is that, Carl?!\\
'''Carl''': [[NeverMyFault Society. Society and the swans.]]

-->'''T-Rex''': Luckily, Sherlock lived in history times where things were way worse than they are now and children worked in coal mines, so his devastating conclusion did not apply to us, the reader!

-->'''Utahraptor''': Oh, phew

-->'''Piglet''': It wasn't me! I was young and foolish! I blame society!

-->'''Gabriel''': Homer, your problem is simple. You're a fat, selfish buffoon.\\
'''Homer''': Which is society's fault because... \\
'''Gabriel''': It's your fault!

--->'''Moe''': You know what I blame this on the breakdown of? Society.

--->'''Lisa:''' You killed Grampa.\\

--->'''Marge:''' ''...Society?''
--->'''Bart:''' That's the guy!

-->'''Bender:''' "My crimes were only boyish pranks!"\\
'''Robot Devil:''' "You stole from boy scouts, nuns, and banks!"\\
'''Bender:''' "Aw, don't blame me, blame my upbringing!" (Stealing a wallet)\\
'''Robot Devil:''' "Please stop sinning while I'm singing!"

->'''Man''': All right, it's a fair cop, but society's to blame.\\
'''Church Policeman''': Right, we'll arrest them instead.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', a criminal organization known as the Paradisers - lead by Hammerhead, go around causing trouble because of an unequal society divided by wealth, and the frustrations of labor. No-one listens to the leader's rants, and they only start paying attention to them when they're beating up heroes or knocking down buildings. Naturally, after running into [[ComicallyInvincibleHero Saitama]], Hammerhead reveals that he's just a LazyBum refusing to work, and as Saitama spares him, [[NotSoDifferentRemark he muses that he could've been like him]] ([[LoserProtagonist himself unemployed]], and [[PunchClockHero only doing hero work for a hobby]]). The anime goes further Saitama listening to the news report [[FunnyBackgroundEvent in the background]] discussing the Paradisers and how they could have arisen. An "expert" interviewed blames [[TheNewRockAndRoll modern pop music]] for corrupting modern youth preventing them from getting "real" jobs like everyone else.

* ''Series/{{Mindhunter}}'' is deliberately open-ended on what causes serial killers to become who they are. When investigating the Atlanta Child Murders, the GBI investigator states taht he blames poverty for most of the deaths.

* In ''Anime/KonoSuba'', this is one of the Axis Cult's credos; ''"It's society's fault things don't work out!"''