Earlier this year, Mitt Romney promised Morality in Media, the “leading national organization opposing pornography,” that he supports “strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws,” thereby alienating an extremely vocal, protective sect of Internet users everywhere.
On Reddit in particular, the social news nerd haven where porn is as sacred as Ron Paul, the men (an educated assumption) are mobilizing with a plan to “swift-boner” Romney. Noting the site’s “activism in the past against things that would censor the internet in one way or another,” a user wrote yesterday to ask if Redditors would be interested in buying up ads on porn sites to alert potential voters to Romney’s anti-porn position.
They are very interested (in making penis jokes).
About 300 comments poured in supporting the grassroots campaign — a good portion of them boner puns, obviously — but a handful of people sound pretty serious about it. There’s talk of the legality of the ads in campaign finance terms, and one person claiming to be a purveyor of adult content promised to participate. A few users even made examples (some of which are understandably NSFW-ish).
If they follow through, Reddit can probably depend on bipartisan support: A 2009 Harvard study found “states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious.”
