The individualist culture of Shameless is the college that Lip goes to. Everyone there believes that he makes his own choices and his past does not affect his choices in present time. They also believe that Lip is a very smart kid and they praise him for having his own way of thinking and having his own individual characteristics. This is not common on the show, because the characters get stereotyped so often. Lip starts to believe he falls into those stereotypes but then later realizes he has his own individualistic culture after attending MIT.