M’lady. The gentlemen at Culture Dumps dive into the secretive world of Pick Up Artists (PUA). An underground phenomenon during the 80s and 90s, PUAs are groups of men who obsessively try to get dates with women. Involved is statistics, bizarre vocabulary and a controversial amount of psychological manipulation. In 2005 Neil Strauss released his best selling book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. The Game brought the pick up artists a new level of mainstream recognition. PUA found a home in the burgeoning world of Youtube vlogs, and many used hidden camera style videos to showcase their apparent abilities. In true dump fashion, this flirtation with mainstream culture would not last long. On the surface, pick up artists claim to be a way to gain self confidence and improve social skills. However, there is a constant undercurrent of toxic mentality that manifested itself in some truly horrifying ways. This episode contains mentions of murder, sexual assault and just plain bizarre nonsense.
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