this happened to a friend of mine I used to be close with before I went really lefty

They went to college to get a degree that is good for jobs in industries with very bro-to-chud tendencies, and after they got a degree and a job for ~6 months, I met up with them to hang out for a bit. They seemed like such a different person. Everything they talked about was directly rat-race and/or keeping-up-w-jones nonsense. I used to smoke pot with them and talk about all kinds of weird stuff, but that part of them seemed to have just evaporated via exposure to this terrible work culture stuff.

I can imagine it's very difficult to prevent the seeping in if you have to live in that kind of environment most of your waking hours.