This is a bad habit I picked up from my dad (and directly or indirectly reinforced by the terrible people I had around me growing up) that I’m still working on kicking, actually. It was very much a gaslighting environment, waaaay before that became a watered down buzzword. Even when repercussions slapped you right across the face, just blame the entity holding you responsible. Admit nothing. I’m still working on migrating to a different defense mechanism for my fragile ego, but occasionally slip back into that if the situation is really bad.