Yep, this is exactly how and why it works.
It’s important to remember that even when someone is doing something incredibly annoying, they’re still a person underneath and deserving of respect. However, when someone is blatantly putting on an act, it makes it harder for me to do this, because all I see is the act, and I no longer see the person.
I read (probably an another thread here) that much of the PUA clientele are just ordinary lonely guys looking for girlfriends. They don’t start out as outwardly misogynistic or looking to dominate women, they just feel they have nowhere else to turn and wind up turning to the PUAs for guidance 
It’s saddening how often I see this. It not only embraces toxic masculinity, but it feeds right back into it. It gives MRAs the opportunity to point fingers and say, “see, we were right!”
Same here, sort of? I left home when I was 17 and had a lot of shit to figure out on my own since then. It’s been hit-or-miss, a lot of recalibrations, a lot of “if it’s stupid and it works it ain’t stupid”, but it is what it is. I am not an MRA or a former MRA, but I totally get how someone could become one.
