If you’re hot for a guy who’s an asshole, it’s not because he’s an asshole, it’s probably because he’s hot. This is precisely why pick-up artists aren’t just evil and gross, they’re also guilty of false advertising.
Take, for example, the reigning king of the pick-up artists: Daryush Valizadeh (Roosh V). What a profoundly delusional idiot this guy is! He actually thinks that his sociopathic “skills” are what gets him laid. Of course, it’s obvious to any objective outside observer with common sense—indeed, even to hardcore feminists like Laurie Penny, who loathe him—that he gets laid a lot because he’s hot.
Roosh V is guilty of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to as the Green Lumber Fallacy.
As Taleb makes clear in Antifragile (2012), people who are successful at something are often blissfully unaware of why they’re successful at it. They might think they know why they’re successful, but they’re often dead wrong. He refers to this as the Green Lumber Fallacy, after the trader who made a fortune buying and selling green lumber without knowing what it was. Dude thought green lumber was actually “green” as opposed to freshly cut. Funny, I know. But, what’s not funny is watching a homely computer programmer trying to apply Roosh V’s creepy techniques.
These guys fail miserably because the techniques aren’t just morally repunant, they aren’t effective.
What is effective? I’ve noticed three discernible traits when it comes to straight guys who get a lot of play: 1) they genuinely like women and/or 2) they’re hot and/or 3) they’re powerful, which is kinda hot. Successful pick-up artists need to realize that they’re getting laid in spite of their douche-y-ness, not because of it.
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Original article appeared at Committing Sociology. Reprinted with permission.
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You’re right about looks and power attracting women so does money, fame and a host of other things. One of thos things is being an assh*le. Does it attract every woman? No, but it does attract those damaged ones who have their low opinions of self worth validated and those who confuse assh*lery with power / social status. If you’re not looking for a life partner, it suffices.
lovely post!
If you’re hot for a guy who’s an asshole, it’s not because he’s an asshole, it’s probably because he’s hot. This is precisely why pick-up artists aren’t just evil and gross, they’re also guilty of false advertising. Same could be said about entitlement girls, especially the hot one’s that play men, use men for both status and monitory gain. You are trying to turn a human frailty into a masculine frailty, while at the same time ignoring, or holding harmless the other gender. That is not conducive to unified discussion of the subject matter, but drain circles down to accusation… Read more »
Skewing the conversation for the purposes of taking a shot at manhood turns good men off more then it does grab their ear. But unfortunately it does tend to bring a lot of female ears and ears of “enlightened men”. That’s why doing this alone isn’t enough and you will see such conversation defended on the grounds that “real men” wouldn’t be turned off by this and that if a man is turned off by this it must be because his masculinity is so fragile. Honestly I think such behavior is classified as male is because women that get deceived… Read more »
It’s 2016 … I believe that these artists have no gender restrictions, do you? So why is it always the big bad “guys?”
I think PUA actually is gender-restricted; at least in the sense that those methodologies are intended for men to use in interactions with women.
That would be an amusing lawsuit, almost a shame no sane lawyer would ever take it up.