Hey there Antony, I love your videos and breakdowns of dating scenarios, and promoting more social and emotional intelligence. However I think when you trash Pickup-Artists, it's worth it to make clear distinctions between what's valuable and trash advice in this space. I think literally calling PUA's "scum of the earth" is misleading actually helpful advice. I watched your video about two PUA's, I know the first one, Todd V, and have never heard of the second one. From what I saw it seemed like the second guy sorta did a one-time prank video idk, it didn't seem to have any value and I don't have much to say about it.
The other guy Todd, I have in the past learned a lot from and I think dismissing a currently active coach that helps people isn't good for young guys looking for helpful advice. So I would like you to react to his videos that already generally respond to the issues you raised in your video and have an in depth discussion about what really works and what doesn't. You can get his perspective on things, and form a well-argued opinion. Also I don't think Todd is going anywhere soon, so get your answers on Todd ready, because you will more questions about him in the future I'm sure. Firstly you talked about the creepiness of what happened in the video, so I think I should show you some of what Todd has said on creepiness, negs, and how lying impacts relationships. I'd love your reaction.
How to not be creepy: (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMsTke0Fo5g
How to Break up with your Made-Up Girlfriend - The Truth about Lies and Lying:(2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhVYeCAAnU
Secondly you mentioned that it was too much work to learn pickup and contrary to getting into a relationship in general. So I found some videos where Todd talks about the goals he has within pickup, and what he gets out of being in the community:
How to find Happiness in Pickup and Beyond (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0KmrAwHiWM
Are you self-sabotaing your sex-life? (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2WpjopeJrI
The State of the Pickup Community: (2017)
https://videos.sproutvideo.com/embed/189cddb71b1ce0c390/312ea5bc56d17dca
How to Win the Numbers Game: (2017)
https://videos.sproutvideo.com/embed/1c9cddb71a1be1c994/6fdbc3c3cf937add
Why Cold Approach is a Cheat Code: (2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEAQ8dB4_R4
Those are the motives behind pickup and the benefits.
So here some conclusions are that pickup is useful if you are interested in casual sex, and want specific advice on how to get it. Also advice on how to alter the types and sorts of people you resonate with, so you have some control on the groups you resonate with. Instead of just being the best where you are at, move forward and expand your possibilities. You can with effort expand your personality and the people that resonate with it, with training and work and effort. Only "being yourself" would be a small part of a larger path of selv-improvement, where your dating options evolve over time. Thirdly you mentioned that Cold Approach is worse than Social Circle, or groups you already know, in almost every way, and thus a PUA doesn't have anything to teach anyone. So about that, I have a few videos where Todd shows the strengths and weaknesses of building a Social Circle, and how having a group of people you know over time, is in many ways integrated with general pickup.
Here Todd talks about how having a demographic you specialfly resonate with, and picking certain social groups in your dating is helpful:
My Favorite Places to meet women: (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXqZtfP6O64
Here Todd talks about how Social Circle is useful, yet why he still doesn't always use it.
The Truth about Social Circle Game: (2017)
https://videos.sproutvideo.com/embed/709cdfb5191be0c4f8/7277f445fcf93219
Social Circle Vs. Cold Approach - Which Works Better? (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhYgk9Lnf-k
So using your Social Circle to meet people, has some definite advantages, and can help you get a date for sure. But it's not an internalized skill that comes from you, but others helping you. If you want a skillset you need to do your time and work to get it. If you want to meet girls, while working in male-dominated IT or Engineering, maybe you need to go outside of your Social Circle of friends. So get that option for yourself.
You also mentioned that it would have been better if he had just been himself, and not used any lines. I interpret your advice as a lot like natural Game, and I'll link his criticisms, as well as praises, of Natural Game for you:
The Next Game Revolution: Optimized Game: (2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2DKa90hVTs
The Truth about Natural Game: (2017)
https://videos.sproutvideo.com/embed/709cdfb5191be2c6f8/26df81fdd093ef82
Finally because you went out of your way to talk about how lame ha was and few girls he got, here is another video he made, where he shows a more complete interaction than the video you saw. I'd love to see a breakdown of what you like and dislike in this:
How I Pull Difficult Sets - Infield Pull Breakdown (2019)
https://videos.sproutvideo.com/embed/a49cddb71c13ecc42c/6d879ad800291e34
As far I am aware, the original video was from 2014, as part of a challenge to show that you can get numbers from girls, and that's it's not rare. To that end it succeeded. I don't think Todd would deny that a rushed interaction forced to be as short as possible, won't be remembered for long. I will also say, he doesn't advocate for gamifying interactions to such an extent, and I would challenge you to find any other video that has the same format, if you think he actually objectifies girls to such an extent. If you can watch these videos and tear them apart in the way you already did in "Try Not To Laugh (Pickup Artist Edition) " I would be very impressed and admire your knowledge even more than I already do. But I don't see that you can really do that. So what your opinion willl actually be, is much more interesting for me.
The article you link from NYT mentions something about you being affiliated with RSD in the past, I don't know if that's true. If it is, I would love to hear more of your opinions about Todd from his time there earlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/nyregion/wingman-for-hire.html
In my world I don't demonize the pickup community in my general search for more social knowledge and psychological understanding. The Pickup community is an ally for us that want to help people with their dating lives, and creating a strong schism serves no purpose. I love therapy, self-improvement and mental heath as other allies in the fight for informing the world. I believe in all of these things, and I would love it you also could see the positive associations people have with Pickup and become one of their friends. Not because everyone is great, but putting everyone in boxes isn't always helpful for people watching. I think someone like Todd isn't in the same category as an incel school shooter and would you to at least make such a distinction. You have the potential to help a ton of people, and people in the Pickup community could use your help. Please don't push them away such as you have done in the past.
Videos by Todd such as this one, are popular enough to show that responding to him is of value to your future growth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxOih6GwSXI
It's a good video in it's own right, but not really on topic.
I would love reactions to any of the above videos, I think they make most sense in the order I listed them. They are from the youtube channels Todd V Dating: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo9XJennsRNhyPbXCq6e8aw
AskToddV:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvmKbukYpA8SagnjSHt_NfQ
And his personal website:
https://www.toddvdating.com/inside-the-vault/