Fortunately there is a very easy way to determine who is right here, and one which has already been examined in this thread. That is whether the tactics of pickup artists actually work.
If anything Pessimist were saying were true, then the tactics employed by pickup artists would NOT work. The problem is, they do work, and not just on ugly or unconfident/self conscious women, but on bombshells (especially on bombshells, in fact).
The only real dichotomy in this thread is that, while everything Dannno has said is *politically* incorrect, it is in fact *objectively* correct.
I get it, Pessimist. I got the brainwashing too. I watched the same feelgood movies and TV shows when I was a kid, where the girl ditches the asshole and ends up with Mr. Right, who seemingly never tried too hard to hit on her, but somehow the "magic" just worked and they just naturally fell into each other's embrace. I remember being 10 or 11 and being angry with a male character any time he would approach a woman and talk to her. How dare you, jerk! Can't you see she is just trying to enjoy the beach in peace? Don't buy her a drink, you disgusting predator! Just leave her alone! Girls don't want to be preyed upon, they are waiting for their soulmate!
Unfortunately, that's just not how it works, though I (and Dannno, I think, though please correct me if I'm wrong) want that to be how it works soooooo badly. And you want that to be how it works too, as is evident from your musings in this thread. We actually agree on the principles. It's just on the actual reality where we part ways. You see, you actually believe that's how it *does* work, whereas I consult the science, and yes, it *is* science.
In virtually every mammalian species the sexual relationship between males and females is fundamentally (though to varying degrees) predatory in that a smaller number of the largest, strongest, most virile males monopolize all of the smaller, weaker, more docile females. This makes perfect sense for both sexes from an evolutionary standpoint, and these behavioral characteristics can actually be quantitatively analyzed because they correlate strongly with sexual dimorphism: the greater the size and strength disparity between the sexes, the greater the extent to which females are subjugated and males compete with each other with violence. One of the most extreme examples is lions, in which the females go out and hunt or tend to cubs all day while the one adult male, twice as large and capable of much greater ferocity, literally lies around doing nothing...until the male cubs reach puberty at which point he either expels them from the pride or kills them...or until a rival male shows up and threatens to take over the pride, resulting in a winner takes all fight. The females just watch and automatically mate with the winner of that fight. This can be contrasted at the other extreme with gibbons, which exhibit very little (essentially zero) sexual dimorphism, pair bond for life, and are, for the most part, equal partners in the division of labor.
Humans fall somewhere between lions and gibbons, though we are much closer to the latter. Male humans are larger and stronger, but not nearly by the same margin as with lions. We tend towards pair bonding, but males must still compete with each other for the highest quality mates by demonstrating the greatest ability to provide security and a high probability of reproductive success and offspring survival. The qualities which indicate this probability in males are seen as attractive by females. In human society this means wealth, physical strength, humor, and a dominant personality. Wealth, strength and dominance are obvious, but why is the funny guy so attractive? Because, invariably, he will endear himself to his fellow men and work his way to the top of his social ladder, opening up opportunities which correlate eventually to wealth and power. Being attracted to funny is an unconscious anticipation of that upward mobility.
Humans are no different than any other mammal species in this respect, except to say, like Dannno mentioned, we can use the power of our conscious mind and intelligence to overcome these primal instincts. The place to start is not to deny their existence, however.