I've spent more time than I'd like to admit consuming pickup artist content across every medium. I've watched TV shows, lurked in online forums, and read books — the legitimate ones from major publishers and some shady ones sold as e-books on dubious websites. I can partly chalk that up to the fact that, in the mid-2010s, pickup artist forums became politically relevant due to GamerGate, an online harassment campaign targeting women in the gaming industry. But even before that, I was thoroughly