Pickup artists are a disease on the face of human culture.

But it’s not just due to their misogyny and entitlement that they are hated: no, it’s because many of their techniques work, and work well.

Note that I am not saying their techniques are justified or appealing. Honestly the world would be better off by far if they all left. For like Jupiter.

But why people despise them is not the nominal reasons pointed out when that antipathy is expressed, because if their techniques were completely ineffectual they’d not even be relevant.

Women and men despise them because it is a relatively-effective tactic that low-status men (note: I also don’t buy into their construction of alpha and beta males, but some related concepts are useful) have of obtaining something they would not otherwise be able to, and this deeply offends people. Not because of misogyny, again. Misogyny has nothing at all to do with it  for most people– no, this is of the same sort of offense as if a hobo walked into a high-end restaurant and was seated and treated like a valued and wealthy patron.

The misogyny excuse is just tacked on after the abhorrence is already solidified as an excuse or post hoc justification, for in reality the real contempt arises from the violation of status norms.

A way to check this contention is to notice that when already high-status men who aren’t self-described PUAs use exactly the same techniques, it is considered “cute flirting” instead of high-pressure PUA tactics.

PUAs are hated because they are Weberian status violators, as I noted above, not because of their real and despicable misogyny. That explains the out sized vitriol they receive when other far worse problems that women face receive little to no attention.

Attempted and especially successful status jumping is always punished most severely in human cultures.