heresiarch [she/her]

Data on this is based on polling, and varies a lot, which makes the data flawed. The usually cited figures in what I could find put self-reported participation at between 15 and 26 million.

Of course, people could be lying or exaggerating how much they “participated”. But even if we half the low-end estimate, it still puts the George Floyd uprisings as the largest mass action in American history by a wide margin.

I mean, the answer is kind of in your post. 2020 BLM was the largest set of protests in the history of the country. There would be massive amounts of pushback from everyday people.

I actually think a lot of this stuff is best thought of through the lens of moral panic, in that the subject matter is almost arbitrary because it’s being used as a vehicle to express a deep-set anxiety about society. Another helpful connection here is how “sissy hypno” porn has been latched onto by anti-trans fascists as a demonstration of how the internet is “corrupting” children or whatever.

I’m sure right-wing spaces have had their own weird debates about it, but when I see people panicking about gooning in leftist spaces, I assume it comes from a sense of unease about the easy accessibility of pornography and how it might affect us. I have a much longer rant about how I think that is picking the wrong target to critique, but I should probably stop posting about gooning lol

I cannot emphasize enough that you are 100% correct and that some of the people assuming that there are large groups of people actually living out this niche fetish are on this website with us.

goon (v):

1. to masturbate
2. to near orgasm while masturbating but delay climax. see edging
3. to practice a sexual fetish in which one consumes internet pornography that portrays the viewer as a “porn addict” who cannot stop themselves. see hypno