I have several friends, all of whom are now trapped in "dead end" marriages, who fit the classic married AFC profile in their personalities. One commonality that I've just come to realize recently which I noticed among all of them while they were single, was a very over-confident sense of self-righteousness once they had transitioned from being the desperate, lonely AFC to having a girlfriend and finally "getting some" sex.
I'm contemplating this because one friend I have is about to join the ranks of these other men who went from desperate, to marrying their single mommie girlfriends. In their single lives all of these guys bought into the standard AFC mythology that most DJs did at one time, so of course preaching anything counter to the Nice Guy, Savior Schema, do-everything-to-identify-with-the-girl mentality was met with ridicule and condemnation, or at the very least rationalized away as 1950s caveman thinking. Most of this I'm prepared for, and now in hindsight all of these guys agree with everything I'd suggested back when they were single, however, all of them went through a self-righteous phase when they had finally scored with a much less than their standard woman.
You see, when an AFC clings to the mental schemas that make up an AFC mindset it requires a constant need for affirmation and reinforcement, particularly in light of their glaring lack of verifiable success with women while clinging to, and behaving in accordance with the mindset. I forget who's signature it was, but to put it best, AFCs are a bunch of crabs in a barrel - once one get to the top to climb out another drags him back in. The AFC needs other AFCs to affirm his blatantly obvious lack of success. He needs other AFCs to tell him, "don't worry just be yourself" or "she's just not a quality woman because she can't see how great a guy you are."
So when an AFC finally does get a second date and then finally does get laid it becomes the ultimate validation for his mindset. "See, you just have to be a nice guy and the right ONE really does come along." This is when the self-righteous phase begins and he can begin telling his DJ/PUA friends that he's "getting some" now without all the Positive Masculinity claptrap. In actuality he rationalizes away all of the conditions that lead up to him getting the girlfriend and the fundamental flaw that he's settling for a woman "who'd fukk him", but this doesn't stop him from claiming a moral highground. His long wait is over and he's finally hit paydirt.
I will highlight in bold what describes me.