Don't Be the Fall Guy
Accepting a mistake takes balls. Not everybody has it. Not everybody has the courage to say they are sorry. That they made a mistake. Because accepting it means accepting the consequences of those mistakes too. Then they cannot claim that the world is unfair to them. They cannot hide their failures behind excuses.
And so people get defensive. They conjure all sorts of excuses to prove it was never their fault. Even if you catch them red-handed, it is still not entirely their fault. They have to maintain that pretense. Because the other side of defense is facing an attack on the self. The identity they have constructed gets shattered. That is why it takes courage. To take a hit on the identity, if not for facing the consequences.
This also means they need a scapegoat. An easy target. Someone who is easy to hate. So they can pin it all on them. Hoping they will take it lying down. They construct sophisticated arguments. Full of jargon. To convince you that it is magnanimous to take one for the team. They also convince you that it is your fault. They will twist it six ways to Sunday. They will make it sound noble too.
Don't be someone's scapegoat. Even if it was forced upon you. Never be that. Because it affects your reputation. People don't know you were made a scapegoat. Even if they do, you will lose their respect. Sympathy doesn't work. Nobody respects the one who is easy to manipulate.
Raise the price of making you a scapegoat. Make them suffer for it. Make them pay for it. If you cannot escape the situation, make it unbearable for the one enforcing it upon you. Accepting their mistake should appear far less costly to them than making you the scapegoat. The only way out of the mess is to escalate.
Understand the mechanics behind the scheme against you. Then turn them around. If it is about clever argument, break it with straight facts. Sophistry should be destroyed with brute force. Corporate jargon deserves blunt, non-diplomatic questions. Question everything. Embarrass them by forcing them to answer. Keep raising the stakes.
When someone asks you to take one for the team, they are saving their own skin. Don't let them. Drive up the cost of it. Sacrifice them at the altar of their own making. Never play the victim and fish for sympathy. That never works. Show strength. The world only respects strength.