They love rugged individualism as long as it looks exactly like theirs.
Yup, they also will hear zero talk of actually setting everyone back on an even footing. Ask them about re-pooling all resources and opportunities and letting people start from scratch and compete solely by their own sweat and innovation.
Nosiree, none of that is necessary because they already pulled themselves up by their bootstraps right through (well funded public) school and then went to college (paid for by the money their parents earned at the jobs with the racist bosses who never would have hired non-whites). Well, unless things were tough for them at home of course, in which case they had to get (government subsidized) loans and maybe even take out a second mortgage on the house (that they inherited from gramps in the redlined neighborhood). But you know what? They worked hard at that job with the defense contractor (that was lobbying for inefficient government contracts in their local congressional district). They spent so much time commuting on (subsidized) highways burning (subsidized) gas. How dare people ask for a functioning transit system; that costs MY money!
Nope, nothing but pure self-starters who never got a single leg up due to government programs or structural advantages! Time for everybody to compete in a perfect marketplace starting…right… NOW! Go! Why are the rest of you so far behind? You must be those jealous, lazy mediocrities Ayn Rand told me about!
Shit, I’m not even particularly opposed to playing the game. I don’t find anything deeply disturbing about wanting some safety and luxury and extra opportunities for the particular children you love the most. Just don’t be a dick thinking you mastered the game through sheer will, or be unwilling to pass some reasonable share of the resulting GDP back to people who need it more than you, and on whom you depend to be your community. Our culture frankly asks for ridiculously little from those whom the system serves, and having the gall to think that it’s rigged against you and that you’re morally entitled to every single economic unit vaguely related to your mere existence strikes me as the height of arrogance.