United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday drew instant ridicule from social media users after it was reported that he asked whether the website PornHub also published erudite essays as Playboy once did during its heyday.
As documented by Chron.com reporter Gwen Howerton, Alito raised this matter during a hearing about the state of Texas's online pornography website age verification law.
Specifically, wrote Howerton, Alito asked whether PornHub and other websites have "essays, modern day Gore Vidal, stuff like that."
The reason that Alito was asking such a question is that the case not only revolves around concerns about underage people having access to pornographic material, but also about the Texas law potentially restricting adults' ability to view "constitutionally protected material," as Reuters puts it.
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Regardless, the notion that PornHub would feel the need to launder its reputation through the publication of lengthy articles about politics and culture raised hackles on the social media website BlueSky.
"I'm guessing Alito didn't see much Mark Robinson coverage on whatever news he consumes," cracked University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee communications professor Michael Mirer, referring to the failed North Carolina gubernatorial candidate who regularly left obscene and racist comments on the pornographic website Nude Africa.
New York Times reporter Ryan Mac joked that he personally only reads PornHub "for the articles," while author James Stout expressed a similar sentiment and said, "Going on record in the Supreme Court to claim you got Playboy for the articles is next level.
Attorney Daniel Suitor mockingly said that he was "proud to announce my science fiction short story 'A Joust in the Shadow of Themisto XVIII' is going to be published in the next Pornhub Quarterly."
Bulwark columnist Jonathan Last even offered a name suggestion for PornHub's more intellectual side: "The Brazzers Review of Books."
And finally, national security journalist Zach Dorfman lamented that he "can’t express my disappointment that Vidal isn’t alive to quip about this."