Self‑help as blame infrastructure

Self‑help culture reframes social and material problems as personal failures solvable by optimization, turning policy questions into private projects and stigmatizing those who struggle. This shifts moral responsibility from institutions to individuals and creates social pressure to perform positivity rather than demand structural change. — If true, the idea explains why policy debates about welfare, mental health, and inequality become muted: suffering is treated as an individual shortcoming rather than a public problem.