I'm not post-FIRE yet, but I think of the whole movement as life-hacking. We are taking advantage of policies, knowledge, and historical circumstances to pursue custom lifestyles that the general public doesn't believe are possible.
I would also echo the statements by Frankie's Girl in the earlier posts, that I do see myself as being somewhat smarter than the average person. It sounds and even kind of feels arrogant, but I do think it's true in a "stupid is as stupid does" sense of intelligence. The resources exist. The logic exists. But you have to reject the status quo, and that takes guts, IMO.
I think the FIRE movement does draw attention to the fact that we live in a world of gross overproduction that far exceeds our actual necessities, which is why so many people are fully capable of having an 80%+ savings rate. It's an economic mind-bender, and also proof that expenses tend to rise with income, since the vast majority of people who could save that much simply don't. And even those who couldn't save that much, could usually save a hell of a lot more than they do.