To me, the most hilarious thing about PUA tactics is how many PUA adherents seem unable or unwilling to recognize that the industry dehumanizes men just as much as it does women. PUAs use obviously scripted behavior and techniques, which makes them so robotic. It just adds to the general perception that straight males are utterly predictable. (
http://straightwhiteboystexting.tumblr.com/ - you will not regret it.) Seriously, it's really easy as a female to keep a mental checklist of typical PUA behavior (what they think is flirty touching, negging, etc.) and either laugh or cry as every item in your checklist is checked off in the course of a single social interaction.
When PUA behavior isn't hilarious, it's often downright sad. It seems as though for some reason, there is a cultural standard that says men have to resort to trickery or reverse psychology in order for them to get laid. And yes, this despicable behavior does work on some women, and the women choose poorly in terms of mates and whatnot, but another issue is that a lot of workshops don't seem to offer any advice for men on what to do after a close. So the assumption is that men are just looking to sleep with as many women as possible, which in turn reinforces a number of negative stereotypes about male sexuality (the more women, the better when that is *not* true for all men). The standard wisdom is, men are suckers if they commit. But why can't it also be that some of the males who engage in hookup after hookup also have unresolved emotional issues, or are generally clueless about how to approach any relationship they may want? Again, males and females are not being held to the same standards because of some shoddy assumptions about biology, which have yet to be proved outside of using fallacious reasoning.
I can't help noticing that a significant percentage of the people in this thread defending pickup "artistry" have said that they had no great male role models growing up. The same people tend to believe that dominance and maleness means emotional abuse and reverse psychology, and in the meantime, they have literally no idea how to act around women. There are ways to create attractive tension without becoming a "nice guy" ... I think mysteriousness is key, but it's certainly not the same thing as abusive trickery or reverse psychology tactics.
The issue is that most men who do the PUA thing are IMO at their core socially awkward, and unwilling to take a good hard look at themselves, and cultivate changes in their personality. I used to be frightfully awkward too, but I've been getting better as I have matured, and my social life this year is better than it was in any of my previous 20 years of existence. I've made a conscious effort to become more interesting to people instead of resorting to, in my case, impersonal pleasantries that don't make anyone interested in getting to know me more. I've discovered that people apparently find my quirkiness endearing, and at some point I just have to accept how weird I am and just go with it. Memorizing social cues and routines is not the way to make relationships work.
The difference between PUA and natural charisma is that in the former case, these men are so focused on getting something they want that they miss the big picture. They're too outcome-driven. OTOH, natural charisma focuses on creating chemistry rather than using women for self-validation. Reliance on PUA is a sign of deep-seated psychological issues IMO, and men turn to it when they're uninterested in some self-reflection.