The bullying part is def. exaggerated to the point of extreme falsehood, but I’ve met more than a handful of people who placed wayyyy too much of their identity into increasing their heat tolerance. The worst ones are seriously this autistic and unaware of their cringiness, they would bully harder if they had the numbers and social skill to do so.
It’s a different thing to geek out about hot sauces and have the flavor be the main reason, with the heat as a price to pay, but these mfs couldn’t care less. They would lick the hottest toilet seat in the world if they thought it gave them bragging rights