Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Red State Porn Study

This must be giving some on the left mega-tingles:
Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers
That's how ABC News described a new porn study done by a guy named Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Business School. Explaining further, they tell us that while porn is popular all over,
However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
Perfect mental image--repressed hypocritical gun clinging hillbillies waving the Bible on Sunday and railing against homos then ringing up the smut line on Monday. Another fat softball into Barney Frank's wheelhouse.

Is there hypocrisy? Yeah, anywhere humans exist. But data is data. Wild accusatory headlines need at least some basis in fact, something seemingly lacking here:
That company did, however, provide Edelman with roughly two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included a purchase date and each customer's postal code.
In other words interesting but relatively meaningless politically. A zip code obviously doesn't prove whether the porn addict is a red or blue voter, even if there was a disproportionate level of red to blue voters in any zip. But why let facts stop giant leaps when damage can be done? Here's ABC:
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Then Edelman:
"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.
Nonsense, there's no way of knowing that without knowing the names of the porn users and who they voted for. But this is really about solidifying liberal orthodoxy by tearing down Democratic opposition (which now apparently includes charities) so it doesn't matter. It's about doing whatever it takes to clear the path towards universal health care, gay marriage, aborted fetuses for research, and blindness towards existential threats, just as it was during the previous administration.

8 comments:

LA Sunset said...

As I look at that map and see some blue counties, I have a thought. This study will not factor in the following:

In many of those areas that show blue, strip joints and prostitution are tolerated. Naturally with that market readily available, ordering porn online is going to lose out to live performances and other business ventures, as well.

Once again, someone wants to take the low road in their conclusions, without all factors considered. Surprise, surprise.

Study is flawed, long story short, problem solved.

A.C. McCloud said...

In fairness, I believe the map I grabbed was of Bush's 2004 victory and not the 2008 version. Neverhtheless, it was intended to show how many counties in the US were considered 'red' at one point, which further acts to diminish the study's conclusions.

Anonymous said...

This is a most fascinating post, AC. Amazing, I believe, because while ABC News and Dr. Edelman are able to define pornography when not even the Supreme Court have been able to do that. Does pornography have to do with viewing prostitutes, in the classical Greek sense, or does it involve sexually explicit material depicting male dominance over female subservience? Do we regard pornography as separate and distinct from obscenity? If pornography subordinates women through pictures and words, how must we explain relationships between women, which now involve, if I am not mistaken, universally recognized, accepted, and even applauded Lesbian organizations.

This may appear somewhat convoluted, and for that, I apologize. Nevertheless, I cannot help but wonder whether ABC, Edelman, and a host of others aren’t more concerned about controlling human thinking and behavior more than they are offended by such vague terms as “pornography.” And this is particularly worrisome in the context of this post. If the godless left presume to “shame” red states into thinking the way the government wishes them to think, and behaving the way the government wishes to behave, even and in spite of its many flawed assumptions, then the real issue has nothing to do with pornography at all. Does it?

Now let me say that I know LA Sunset. LA Sunset is a personal friend of mine. And he has one of the greatest collections of porn anywhere in the county of Los Angeles . . . well, at least, that’s what I heard.

Darth Rob said...

I think this study would've had more of an impact if they studied the porn consumption of impoverished areas versus those of wealthier areas.

A.C. McCloud said...

Perhaps Obama will use this study to help target his 'stimulus'.

ba da bump.

Mustang, you've really outdone yourself on this. I truly didn't consider that aspect (er, not about LA, we all surmised that sans study long ago).

Rob, even if they could somehow study impoverished versus wealthier areas they'd still need to drill down to the actual user level before it would make complete sense. As it stands they are taking statistical correlations as fact. But gee, these are also the people telling us the debate on climate is over.

LA Sunset said...

//not about LA, we all surmised that sans study long ago//

Now see? This is precisely what happens when you listen to Mustang.

First of all, he is so old, he cannot keep his lies straight. The last time I lived in LA County, I was in diapers. I lived in SB and Solano Counties later on in childhood.

Secondly and most importantly, this hurts deeply, AC. Very deeply. I am constantly defending you to him. And for you to turn on me like this, well......I may have to go to a support group to deal with this. ;)

A.C. McCloud said...

Hey, that's what he said.

Actually, looking closely at the map it appears your county might be blue as opposed to porn red, which probably means your porn is also subsidized by the government. Oh, the humanity. ;-)

LA Sunset said...

//Actually, looking closely at the map it appears your county might be blue as opposed to porn red, which probably means your porn is also subsidized by the government. Oh, the humanity.//

Good eye, but I actually live in the red county next to it. I drive into the blue county to work and then back to my red county where I am safe. ;)