Billionaire Bill Ackman says the secret to dating is speaking like a Victorian ghost, proving yet again that money makes you delusional

There is nothing more dangerous in American public life than a billionaire who thinks he has a point. They are never correct, but they are always loud. Nothing describes that more than Bill Ackman, who went mega-viral on Twitter earlier this week after stating that the collapse of modern dating can be solved with a single sentence.

I know what you’re thinking, Bill Ackman, who definitely had nothing to do with the public execution of Charlie Kirk, probably tweeted out something about housing costs, student debt, or maybe about the dating apps designed by tech sociopaths who see human relationships as “engagement funnels.”

Wrong. According to Bill Ackman, the real issue here is grammar, so instead of actually providing some value to anyone on social media, he gave everyone his pickup line, which he delivered with the smug nostalgia of a man who has not stood in a line or paid his own bills since the Bush administration.

“May I meet you?”

That is the secret formula. Bill Ackman really went online and told struggling young men that dating is easy if you just speak like a disappointed Victorian ghost.

Bill Ackman: “May I meet you?”

I hear from many young men that they find it difficult to meet young women in a public setting. In other words, the online culture has destroyed the ability to spontaneously meet strangers. As such, I thought I would share a few words that I used in my youth to meet someone that…

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) November 15, 2025

I hear from many young men that they find it difficult to meet young women in a public setting. In other words, the online culture has destroyed the ability to spontaneously meet strangers. As such, I thought I would share a few words that I used in my youth to meet someone that I found compelling.

I would ask: “May I meet you?” before engaging further in a conversation. I almost never got a No. It inevitably enabled the opportunity for a further conversation. I met a lot of really interesting people this way. I think the combination of proper grammar and politeness was the key to its effectiveness.

You might give it a try. And yes, I think it should also work for women seeking men as well as same sex interactions. Just two cents from an older happily married guy concerned about our next generation’s happiness and population replacement rates.

This is what happens when a man gets so rich that nobody has told him to shut up in 25 years.

Bill Ackman says young men should simply ask women, “May I meet you?” and insists it almost never failed him. Which is fascinating, because he is a billionaire, and it turns out women tend to be shockingly open to conversation when the man approaching them might own a pharmaceutical company.

To be clear, when you are a billionaire, you are not “approaching a woman.” You are offering her a provisional stake in generational stability. Bill Ackman saying “May I meet you?” is not flirting. It is an angel investor pitch.

It is easy to be charming when the world is on your side, Bill. Try being flirty when you are eating cold rotisserie chicken over the sink at 3 AM, ten beers deep in a shared apartment with two roommates. Then come back and tell us about courage, big guy.

Let’s be honest. If any normal man walked up to a stranger and said, “May I meet you?”, there is a 50 percent chance she calls security and a 30 percent chance she films it for TikTok content titled “Modern Men Are Terrifying.”

Ackman, meanwhile, delivered this advice like a professor emeritus of romance and not a hedge fund manager whose primary love language is activist investing.

Dating in 2025 is not a Regency ballroom. It is a FEMA zone. People are juggling three apps, zero matches, one panic attack, and a situationship so confusing it needs its own attorney.

Nobody is struggling to approach strangers because they forgot the right conjunction.

They are struggling because everything costs too much, everyone is exhausted, and half of the population is one bad relationship away from moving back in with their parents.

If Bill Ackman actually wants to prove his Victorian pickup line works for the general public, here is the field test:

Strip away the net worth. No townhouse, no hedge fund glow, no CNBC aura. Drop him in a plain t-shirt at a Trader Joe’s parking lot in South Philly on a Thursday night. Have him approach someone who just worked a 10-hour shift and is buying frozen dumplings and deodorant.

If “May I meet you?” gets him a phone number instead of pepper spray, he wins, but until then, no one should take this as advice. It is a fantasy, and it belongs in the same drawer as lottery tickets and politicians promising to fix anything.

Billionaires are not relatable. They are not mentors. They do not live in the same world as anyone reading this. They are simply too wealthy to hear themselves anymore.

Nothing says “I understand ordinary Americans” like lecturing people who can barely afford a cocktail to behave like supporting characters in Pride & Prejudice with Wi-Fi.

Thanks, Bill. We will keep your magic sentence exactly where it belongs, written on a napkin next to the Powerball numbers. Also… don’t you have a few things to figure out about Charlie Kirk’s execution? What happened, Bill?

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