My anthropologist friend took great issue with the writer's likening of "pickup artists" such as "Mystery" to paleo-society alphas. The latter generally found mates through the display of traits one would associate with the ability to provide and protect; the former does through displaying traits of thinly-veiled self-loathing and a general contempt for humanity.
In other words, he would say that pick-up artists aren't regressive -- they're much worse than that.
I've recently become much more aware of these 'trend' articles. When you realise that journalists love writing about new trends that they think they've identified, and that people love reading them... you learn to be a bit more skeptical as to the things they claim.
It's about what it says. The thesis of the article seems to be that the sexual revolution has created the Tucker Max culture. Essentially, women actively go after and sleep with alpha males. The issue that arises is that alpha males won't commit because they don't need to in order to sleep with attractive women, and attractive women are essentially disposable to them.
Unfortunately for women, as time goes on they become less attractive, and the guys that used to be interested in them are now only interested in younger, prettier girls. While men tend to become more physically attractive and develop in their careers as they age, the exact opposite happens for women. Because of all this, men try to become alpha males and don't treat women well if they are, because they don't need to.
In my own experience, this is all essentially true. A friend of mine was recently given an ultimatum, by one of the several women he's been sleeping with. He could care less, she's easily replaceable. And he doesn't care because attractive women wouldn't pay attention to him a few years ago. Looks like women created a cycle that men are abusing.
I have to say that this is only an American phenomena.
Guys like him wont go anywhere in Europe. With his antics he will look like yet another american idiot.
I remember in college in the US, getting drunk and doing stupid things was like a badge of honor. Saying "man I was so trashed last night", was like "oh I am so cool, I can drink alcohol".
While back home, If you get trashed, means: 1. You are not man enough to handle alcohol, 2. You have no self control. 3. You look like an idiot, and girls wont touch you.
Maybe that's why I don't date american girls. Messed up values.
I don't think it's only an American phenomena. Your example is only about the lowest common denominator of what happens in America but the main thesis of the article seems to work in any setting. The self-centered, narcissistic male usually ends up sleeping with more women than the courteous, humble male. Maybe it's a matter of self-confidence and the narcissist displays it better but women are really bad at discriminating between narcissism and real self-confidence. In the end nobody likes a wimp with low-self esteem but it seems that being an asshole is a sure way to imitate confidence.
This is old news. Celebrity males have always been able to do this, and a subset of attractive women will always go for that kind of thing (groupies, anyone?).
For most of the people in the dating game, this stuff is irrelevant.
One could argue that the root causes and phenomenons outlined in the parent article actually define "the dating game", thus it would be difficult to say it's really irrelevant.
Before some you guys start acting like a nutjob towards women I encourage you to check out http://zanperrion.com . Its the natural and true way to be more attractive to women.
fuck's sake - first off, this article is terrible. Here's a great quote : "advances in antibiotics (no more worries about what used to be called venereal disease)" Are you kidding me? HERPES you can get it with a condom, genital warts and of course fucking AIDS and hepatitis? To the people talking about how this is unfortunate for women... if those women CHOOSE to fuck an asshole like tucker max, one of the biggest douches of the internet? They know exactly what they're getting into and there's no sense sympathizing with them if they let themselves get played in such an obvious way. That's not to say I'm a sexual prude - but I'm happily free of all STDs and any girl that sluts around with highly promiscuous guys like that needs to get tested before I get involved. There's absolutely nothing new about this either, rich attractive young males have been running their way through women since the dawn of time. How about putting aside all of these stupid gender roles and focusing our time on arranging a sane, happy and sustainable life? There's plenty of women and men that do this and don't obsess about knotches on a bedpost. Seriously after the first few hundred times how do you not start looking at the fact that you have limited time to find a super compatible person? Even without kids nobody wants to grow old and die alone and super compatibility is not easy to find. Enough ranting about this stupid ass article.
In other words, he would say that pick-up artists aren't regressive -- they're much worse than that.