The Goon SquadSubmitted 1 day ago by JCPhoenix@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/the-goon-squad-daniel-kolitz-porn-masturbation-loneliness/
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
But gooning is more goal-oriented and more communal. The gooner goons to reach the “goonstate”: a supposed zone of total ego death or bliss that some liken to advanced meditation, the attainment of which compels them to masturbate for hours, or even days, at a time.
Is this Fox News? I think their GenZ consultant trolled them hard.
What the fuck. Back in my day gooning meant having someone pour alcohol into your mouth, typically from a bladder container such as a wine bag from boxed wine. I have fun memories of gooning with friends in hot tubs. I guess that’s a sentence I can’t use any more.
Well see here back in MY day gooning meant going around town doing whatever the boss told ya to do, see? Boss wants me to smash the windows of some two bit salesman who won’t pay up? Done. Boss wants me to buy his wife a nice something or other for her birthday? You got it.
Hahahhaha. Definitely not!
You have me laughing out loud in public.
Thanks
Aussie?
Just a victim of globalization I guess. Was introduced to it by a guy who did farmwork in Australia for a while.
Great article. I laugh at the folks who think this dude is bought into the fantasy that some folks have turned into what best represents a spirituality. As in if they haven’t seen folks who go a little too hard in any one specific part of their life. Sure, gooning as a term has long since entered the cultural zeitgeist and has been used, both ironically and not, as a way to simply now refer to excessive masturbation. But to discount that there is a loneliness epidemic out there and folks who have turned to gooning as some form of extreme kink or outlet for some need for human connection and healing, going 24/7 like many dom/sub relationships or cnc, ferality, etc. shows either a lack of exposure to the vastness of this damaged world or an attempt to poke fun at the author for seriously studying a cultural phenomenon. Either way, this is a fascinating look into a weird niche subculture and a really well written article. Thank you for sharing.
I could no longer open Instagram without encountering dozens of large-breasted women skipping rope, romping in tank tops, brushing their teeth while drooling erotically. It was the same story on TikTok, the little of it I watched.
This confession kills me every time. My Instagram is entirely tattoo designs because that’s all I interact with, and TikTok is similarly reflective.
Interesting and sad read.
Deeply disturbing and a great read. This author is a good person for exploring this so I don’t ever have to.
Glide@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
What the actual fuck is this article, lmfao. They act like they’ve cracked the code of what a “gooner” is, and likeness it to this almost religious state of being. It’s slang for someone who unapologetically gives their time and energy to one of more targets of their sexual fantasy. That’s it. They’re not trying to ascend to a state of goonvana, or whatever the fuck this article is trying to paint it as. It’s literally just a culturally accepted way of referencing obsession with sexual fantasy.
So fucking weird, dude.