Just listened to this episode and it described almost to a T a former housemate of mine. Guy was a very wealthy (from poker) bro. He fucking loved all that pua shit. Granted he slept with a lot of women, but he was decent looking, very rich and flaunted it, and super confident so that all probably had more to do with it then his love for negging and peacocking.
After Trump got elected I got to watch him evolve into a Ben Shapiro loving anti-woke dumbass, which seems to track pretty well with the pua community.
My main thoughts on PUA have always been that it works if you are dumb enough to believe in it. If you approach enough women (particularly younger women obv) with the confidence that you have a formula for success it’s going to work out for you some percentage of the time as long as you’re not repulsive. If you lack confidence to begin with and see this stuff as ridiculous it’s going to be of no use.
Always strange to me to find guys who seemed to be fairly intelligent and had their shit together and got really into it.
To add a little to my earlier A+ rating on The Game episode:
This episode was basically custom-made for me. I read the book when it came out (and even remember the leather cover and weird bible-like ribbon bookmark). I even watched the TV show spawned by the book: The Pick-Up Artist on VH1. (OH NICE, IT’S ONLINE RIGHT NOW. Here’s the pilot: https://vimeo.com/571898047) And I really enjoyed reading the PUA trip reports on 2p2 back in the day. The El Diablo and Yeti ones were silliness, but if I recall correctly Bruiser was actually taking this stuff seriously? Anyway, I came into this episode with very high expectations.
Peter was super into this discussion, and his enthusiasm is infectious. He seems like a great hang.
They were surprisingly charitable to a lot of the PUA community - not the leaders, but the people who signed up to learn. Their viewpoint was basically, “Hey, meeting new people and dating can be difficult and requires a certain level of confidence. If some of these tricks help instill a bit of confidence, then is that really so bad? We tell people to fake it until they make it. Is that different from telling people to wear a silly hat or use a canned opener to initiate conversations?” They also made the obvious point that the PUA community is certainly a better destination for struggling men than the incel community.
One thing that I thought was really interesting is the idea that a lot of these PUA strategies are intentionally over-the-top stupid in the way that a lot of email scams are intentionally overly stupid (filled with typos and whatnot) - it’s a filter to make sure that the target is sufficiently susceptible that the strategy/scam is likely to work and not result in a lot of wasted effort. In other words, there’s a relatively small number of credulous people that will respond to a typo-filled message promising riches from a Nigerian prince. Similarly, there’s a relatively small number of girls that are going to be captivated by your fancy belt buckle or your “hey, is that lint on your shoulder?” trick. The darker side of this is that the latter group is likely to be significantly intoxicated, which makes things ethically shaky.
There’s a pretty involved discussion about the fact that Mystery almost certainly has a lot of mental/emotional issues. And also the idea that he’s a tall, good looking guy who probably would be very successful with women just based on him being a normal person, and not because he does magic tricks.
Peter and Michael were harshest towards the author of the book. There’s not a quick and dirty summary, but they slam him.
Anyway, great episode. And OMG, I’m just so happy to relive this stupid VH1 show. Mystery, J-Dog, and Matador just going out sarging, looking to neg some girls and get IOIs.
Edit: To their credit, they seem legitimately good at, like, observing the interactions and assessing how comfortable or creeped out the girls are when they’re approached. That’s a useful skill!
I was on the fence about If Books Could Kill premium but when I saw it’s just $4/mo decided to grab it.
I’m halfway through the first premium ep, which is basically dogpiling Bari Weiss. It’s highly entertaining just listening to these two guys talk about bad faith bullshit from the right. They indirectly address the Sam Harris debate heard here, where they talk about commentators who point out all of these supposed liberal beliefs but never ever write about them.
What I didn’t realize was how successful this pod was. It hit #1 on iTunes, and is easily more successful than 5-4. So, for the 5-4 lovers who don’t like IBCK, maybe it should be thought of as a way to get Peter a full income without a 9-5 so he can continue to do the lord’s work on 5-4 and hopefully expand his platform.
The most recent 5-4 episode–a recap of The Pelican Brief–is a real dud. I just don’t think movie criticism is really in their wheelhouse, even for a movie centered on the Supreme Court. I guess you can’t have the highs without the lows.
Agree. They are not good at film criticism. Every critique is basically “hey wait, movies show stuff that isn’t realistic”. They are confused thinking it’s meant to be a documentary.
Started listening to Office Ladies last week. It’s Angela Kinsley and Jenna Fischer doing a rewatch of The Office episode by episode while giving behind the scenes details about life on the show. I had watched a lot of the show years ago but never in order, so I started to rewatch it now somewhat in tandem with the podcast. They do a really good job of making it interesting if you are at all a fan of the show or show production.
Blockquote WELCOME TO OFFICE LADIES! The Office co-stars and best friends, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, are doing the ultimate The Office re-watch podcast for you. Each week, Jenna and Angela will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scene stories that only two people who were there, can tell you.
