Yes, this discussion is also what we grow up with. Every single food choice is noted and people always feel like they need to justify it if they decide to eat a piece of cake in public. Especially in work settings. It is like an endless bargaining game to earn the status of “the best performer” within these very narrow social norms.

Diet talk and pushing that to people who are for example unemployed is also common. I work with folks who like to remind the poors that if they just lost weight their life would get better. A lack of empathy and zero understanding of anything structural is a pretty common trait regardless of education level here.

Individualism as it is framed in neoliberalism has fit into the mindset here perfectly. If something happens to a person, it’s always on them. People have also internalized this exceptionally well. Be it getting sick or losing a job, the fault is always on the individual. If someone tries to point out they got laid off just because capitalism, this is treated like “yea sure”. But at the end of the day everyone thinks they are themselves just expectional enough that it can’t happen to them, but it is ok and reasonable when it happens to others.

The capitalist apologia here is next level, even landlords are commonly framed as fully good actors who get treated with a lot of sympathy.

But I suppose this is pretty common in all the neoliberal hells of today.