Pickup artists are toxic and awful, but one thing you could say for the pickup community (at least back when I was researching it) is that one of its core ideas

Pickup artists are toxic and awful, but one thing you could say for the pickup community (at least back when I was researching it) is that one of its core ideas was that attractiveness is a skill that can be learned and doesn't depend on genes, wealth or anything else that is difficult/impossible to change. Self-improvement or "inner game" was part of the program. Unfortunately the pickup artist scene seems to have ended up overlapping with / feeding into even more toxic communities like incels and gamergate, and I don't fully understand why. I guess because at its core pickup artistry was also founded on misogyny, using women as objects and conquests to be won. EDIT: I guess reminiscing about pickup artists is a little like being nostalgic for Dubya in the era of Trump. The horrifying awfulness of today doesn't excuse the people who sucked in the past, and their past awfulness laid the groundwork for the even more awful people to come.