The first rule of smugosphere is, nobody talks about smugosphere. #PointlessPodcasts

Ugh. Listened to some podcasts while walking along the canal tow-path feeding the moorhens. Love those moorhens. The podcasts? Not so much.

There’s so much smug self-congratulatory circle-jerking going on. “Ooh, it’s the evil oil companies.” “Ooh, it’s the corrupted politicians, meatpuppets for the EOCs.” “Ooh, it’s the x, ooh it’s the y.”

Over the last year or two I’ve had to – for various reasons – take something approaching a long hard look at myself and my behaviour, its impact on others (important) and myself (less important).

And one of the many MANY invitations you make to yourself, asides minimising and deflecting, is to say “oh, but it’s person X’s fault. If they hadn’t done Y then I wouldn’t have done Z and then and then…” Classic bullshit.

I suspect almost everyone does it some of the time, and some of us do it almost all of the time. And there’s often a kernel of truth. Person X probably was being unhelpful or whatever. But ultimately, so what? Ultimately, isn’t pointing one finger at Person X meaning that you point 3 more back at yourself? Aren’t YOU the common factor in all of these stories?

Enough about me (!). The smugosphere. Is ANYONE doing podcasts about the fine detail of what it means to start and maintain a social movement organisation? To stop it going up like a rocket and tumbling down like a stick? To stop it burning out/alienating valuable people by edge-lording and over-demanding, while at the same time not being a fig-leaf for business as usual? About how to keep it going when the issue-attention cycle moves on, when the issue is no longer ‘sexy’ and people are tired and demoralised?

Or are we just blaming others for the absence of a viable climate movement, like I have wanted to blame others for my own sometimes really shitty-behaviour?

Is ANYONE doing podcasts that do more than make the listener feel virtuous for informing themselves (to a lesser or lesser extent) about the Bad Guys?

Because I just cannot be fucking bothered with the soi-disant “radicals” who throw irrelevant soft-ball questions at academics and activists who – when push comes to shove – seem to have either zero real-world experience of the questions above, or else (less common) they have experience but haven’t reflected because they don’t have the mental equipment, or else HAVE reflected, but don’t want to say anything because it’s a downer or because it would upset relationships with individuals and groups they think they need for career-progression/future-funding, whatever.

There are so many barriers to actual reflection, I know. But withOUT reflection, it’s all so much empty yapping. The “radicals” get to preen because they’ve had famous person X or Y on their podcast. They get to think they’re part of some cutting edge. They’re not. They’re a waste of fucking electrons and oxygen.

So, btw, if you know any podcasts that cover this territory, lemme know.