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icycalm
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★★★★★ Taki Theodoracopulos (takimag.com)

Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:33 pm

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Not strictly a PUA, but a great old-style womanizer just the same. A great take on him is this review of his 1984 collection of articles, Princes, Playboys & High-Class Tarts: https://www.amazon.com/Princes-Playboys ... 0943828619
Bachelier wrote: Women want to be Princess Stephanie, Anna Wintour, or Julia Roberts, but men want to be Taki
Reading Taki is like a good tennis game with an attractive partner, a warm summer afternoon in beautiful surroundings, and a perfect cocktail answer to the slur of Eurotrash. Taki is glamour without the glitz, wealth combined with anonymity, privilege and comfort without metrosexual softness, and manliness without burlesque or misogyny.

Taki's tales are a world most mortals never see, so it is a joy to read. What is amazing is the reality of the circles he moves in, rather than the fantasies spun by the likes of Judith Krantz, Town & Country, or the Robb Report.

An unapologetic elitist gentleman, ever giving communists and the spineless a fair punch in their clownish noses. Pure delight.
Paul Lester wrote: Good for him

Taki gives us commoners a look at the high life without being condescending. Good for him.

It's impossible for PUAs and their low-class followers to conceive of this man, or of anyone or anything that's high-class really. Taki packs more wisdom and wit in two sentences than the entirety of the PUA scribblers do in all their wretchedly-written ebooks. He may not have a manual to offer on how to turn low-class low-IQ autistic losers into "alpha males"—because it can't be done, and anyone who's not retarded knows it—but what he can do is offer a living example of a cosmopolitan 20th-century gentleman (and I say 20th-century, because the 21st-century equivalent is me) to generations of men who've only known losers and weasels (including showbiz celebrities whom Taki regularly excoriates).

So who is Taki? First of all, he's Greek, like me, like Greek kamaki, and like GLL sorta (who's half-Greek). Second of all, here's his self-written bio from his site:
Taki wrote: Taki has been the High Life columnist for the London Spectator for over 40 years. He has written for National Review, The London Sunday Times, and The New York Post, among others. He is the founder of The American Conservative and the publisher of Taki's Magazine. He has played Davis Cup tennis, competed in the Olympics for Greece, and is Judo Champion of the World 70 and over.

Note that he was born a millionaire, he didn't have to write for all those rags, but he did because he wanted to, and still does on a weekly basis well into his 80s, at an age when PUAs dream of having long retired and living on "passive income". Taki was born with "passive income" coming out of his ass, and yet he worked his whole life long to create something, something that enriches the world and makes it more interesting to live in. That's what men do, they don't spend their youth figuring out how to avoid working. And that's why I am posting a review of him here, even though he has no "actionable advice" to offer to aspiring PUAs. What he has to offer, however, is a demonstration of a higher-class of man that is sorely missing from the PUA world, and I regard this as far more valuable than any textbook on how to get laid.

More details on his prodigious life on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taki_Theodoracopulos
Wikipedia wrote: Panagiotis "Taki" Theodoracopulos (/ˌθiːədɔːrəˈkɒpələs/; Greek: Παναγιώτης "Τάκης" Θεοδωρακόπουλος, [panaˈʝotis ˈtakis θeoðoraˈkopulos]; born 11 August 1936) is a Greek journalist and writer. He lives in New York City, London and Gstaad, Switzerland.

Early life and education

The son of a Greek shipping magnate, Theodoracopulos was privately educated in the United States at Lawrenceville School and Blair Academy before attending the University of Virginia.

Theodoracopulos was a sportsman early in life. He represented Greece at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1962 having been a tennis player beforehand, including playing at the 1961 French Open.

Career

Theodoracopulos's column "High Life" has appeared in The Spectator since 1977, where he wrote a series of controversial articles, including one pointing out that black people had lower IQs, for which Boris Johnson, made editor in 1999, later apologised. He has also written for other US and UK publications. In 1984, he was arrested for the possession of cocaine, after attempting to board a plane at Heathrow Airport, and served three months in HMP Pentonville. He documented his prison experiences in Nothing to Declare: Prison Memoirs (1991).

In 2002, Theodoracopulos founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He was also the publisher of the British magazine Right Now! He currently publishes and writes for Taki's Magazine, described as a libertarian webzine of "politics and culture."

Theodoracopulos appeared in the 2013 James Toback film Seduced and Abandoned as himself.

He has received criticism for writing in support of Greek ultranationalist political party Golden Dawn, and as a frequent critic of Israel, leading to accusations [by whom?] of anti-semitism. In 2018, he wrote an article commemorating D-Day in which he praised the Wehrmacht and asked readers to sympathize with them.

Personal life

Theodoracopulos has an interest in Asian martial arts, holds a black belt in karate and owned a 37.5-metre yacht named Bushido. The yacht was put up for sale in 2012.

His latest columns on his own website can be found here, and I recommend reading every one: https://www.takimag.com/contributor/Taki/225/

Some reviews of his other book, Nothing To Declare: Prison Memoirs (1992) from his brief prison stint (five times shorter than mine, though I think his was a tougher prison):
Simon wrote: Wealthy, salacious and recalcitrant

Wealthy, salacious and recalcitrant. Taki writes honestly and candidly about his arrest and subsequent time behind bars. Despite being completely aware of the risks and brazen to the point of instigating his own arrest, you can't help but empathize with Taki in this book.

Great read.
Lady Vibart wrote: Not read Taki yet? This is a good place to start.

Taki is an outspoken, politically non correct journalist and author. A refreshing combination in today's ' we know its tru but daren't say so' culture. He is often very shocking and you won't always agree with his viewpoint, but he doesn't expect you to. This is the story of his time in an British gaol for being in possession of drugs as he entered the UK. His description of the futility and violent, corrupt culture of prisons in this country is both moving and a revelation. He shows compassion and an understanding of those much less fortunate that himself (his is a very privileged background and lifestyle) and writes with great honesty about the fear he felt whilst in gaol and how he managed to survive using his charm, knowledge and intelligence to keep safe and also to try and help fellow inmates who had in their turn helped him. Taki writes in the Spectator and is rarely far from controversy. I don't always agree with him, but I admire his courage I saying what daren't be said by politicians and newspapers alike. A good read.
Simon Hustler wrote: ...but his genius

Almost made you pleased such a gent was sent to prison... A great read.

If you want to get an idea of how I can be so continually upbeat for years and decades on end, it's because my life is very similar to his, just without all the celebrities. If you spend every hour of every day doing things you love, and having a rich and varied life, you tend to be a positive, upbeat person. Unless you're clinically depressed, probably because your brain is hardwired that way. There's no great mystery to it.

So if you want to take a break from the masses of low-class tinfoil-hat-wearing internet scribblers who expound on masculinity while being blatantly effeminate through and through, just read a few paragraphs of Taki. He's no "alpha male", but then again practically no one is; he's the next best thing, and that's a gentleman. He's no intellectual either, though he will seem like an intellectual to most people, because once again almost no one is, but to an actual intellectual there's no question, and he even admits this himself, without shame, but without self-satisfaction either; he knows it's a deficiency and doesn't hate intellectuals for it. He's anti-semitic, but no one's perfect (except me). Above all, he is the proverbial breath of fresh air on the male part of the internet—omg an actual male! who writes stuff and things!—and I suggest you look into him and learn to appreciate and treasure him because in all probability we won't have him among us for long.

★★★★★

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