I used to hear about pickup artists all the time—books, forums, “negging,” the whole thing. Now it seems like they’ve vanished, and the only people left are “alpha male” influencers selling courses. Did the pickup artists go extinct, rebrand, or achieve enlightenment?
Public misogynists posing as ‘self help’ have been around forever and the only thing that changes is the nomenclature.
The movie “Magnolia” (1999) features a character that does the whole manosphere shtick back when those grifters had to sell their merch on stage at conference centers because Youtube wouldn’t even be a thing for 5-6 more years.