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The Planet’s Most Hated Pick-up Artist Has Apologized

After the public outrage at pick-up artist Julien Blanc's demonstrated aggression towards women, he appeared on CNN last night to say that he was sorry. Most people don't believe him.

​ Julien Blanc, the infamously outcasted pick-up "artist," who has been described by some as being the world's most hated man, appeared on CNN yesterday. Blanc went on TV ostensibly to apologize for an infamous video that shows him parading around Tokyo assaulting strange women, along with a series of other online posts made by Blanc that make light of domestic abuse and encourage a general aura of male shittiness.

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Blanc appeared in studio with an interviewer by the name of Chris Cuomo, who grilled this greaseball extraordinaire about his behavior. Blanc told Cuomo: " I'm not going to be happy to feel like I'm the most hated man in the world. I'm overwhelmed by the way people are responding." He also described the video that shows him grabbing the necks of strange women as a "horrible attempt at humor."

These statements demonstrate a blatant misunderstanding as to why people are upset that a man like Mr. Blanc is traveling the world to teach men how to meet women, while collecting $2,500—$3,000 per student at his seminars. Also, his focus on being "the most hated man in the world" rather than the t ypes of misogynist and dehumanizing messages he's been sending, illustrates a shallow and immature grasp of the issue at hand.

Also, Blanc's attempt to reduce all of his behavior to a "stupid attempt at humor" is quite clearly dishonest. Blanc and his fellow "seduction coaches" appear to be very earnest and brazen in their speeches and seminars about how to seduce women. The video where Blanc is shown parading around Tokyo is preceded by footage of Blanc in a seminar room, with an audience of pupils, explaining his behavior as if it revealed some hidden truths. His assertion that being a white male in Tokyo somehow means you can go around and grab strange women on the street is much more than a bad stand-up routine. It's a dangerous pick-up artist "lesson."

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The sheer amount of content that Blanc and the other pick-up artists who work under the company Real Social Dynamics have published to the internet is astounding. And, really, the Tokyo video just scratches the surface. Not mentioned in the CNN interview is a video featuring his business partner Owen Cook, which shows Co​ok laughing while he describes forcing sex on an unwilling ​woman that he was dating.

Take the video embedded above, for example, which shows Julien Blanc advising his audience not to be a "permission boy" and to put on their "big boy pants" by avoiding the supposed trap of "seeking permission" when it comes to approaching a strange woman. While he seems to be teaching men that they need to be assertive in social situations, which would be fine advice normally, his laser-focus on eradicating "permission" is not a wise or helpful way to approach this particular lesson.

In the video, Blanc appears to equate obtaining permission from a woman in a social situation to possessing male weakness, instead he suggest men "cut through the bullshit" and use assertive lines like, "Hey get the fuck over here young lady, get your little ass over here." He refers to men who "seek permission" as rodents. And the video, for some reason, ends with two strange women fighting each other in the streets of Austin.

This is just one of many RSD videos that profiles an aggressively dangerous approach to meeting women. While it's not as intense as Cook's admission to forcing sex on a woman who didn't want it, or Blanc's infamous Japan video, it sheds light on the kind of mindset the RSD teachings stem from. It's clear that these two individuals are responsible for a wealth of material through the course of their respective "careers" that ranges from eyebrow-raising, to offensive, to downright incriminating.

While the shine of the media spotlight seems to be scaring Blanc and Cook away for now (neither of them seem to respond to any media requests, save for Blanc's unconvincing CNN appearance), the larger issue of sexual assault and ignoring consent being packaged as some kind of seduction strategy, is abhorrent and needs to be addressed. For men who approach courses like Blanc and Cook's honestly—as a way to gain confidence and approach strangers—hopefully the bullshit tactics of their curriculum are completely evident. Because the bottom line is that there's nothing about ignoring consent, forcing sex on women, or physically groping strangers in public that makes a man respectable, let alone dateable.

Follow Patrick on ​Twitter.