Once i couldn't keep myself from replying to every facebook thread where someone talked any amount of bullshit, however insignificant, about social justice, politics, feminism or what have you, and would consistently post warnings about the dangers of sharing stuff on facebook without checking the source, and would facepalm at how often people shared outdated and flat-out wrong information...
Nowadays IDGAF. And i'm happier this way. I found out that simply not caring about it is the best policy you can have, and since i've distanced myself from politics and internet arguments my stress levels have gone down considerably.
Yes, internet SJW's, feminazis and uninformed people can make you facepalm hard, but the trick is to distance yourself from these people, block them from your newsfeed. As i have learned, out of sight, out of mind. If you can't see it, you can't facepalm from it, and you don't necessarily have to go to the pain of deleting them from your facebook, if for some reason you think down the line you might want to get in touch again, or if they're friends with someone else you know and you don't want the awkwardness of deleting them and possibly having to explain yourself later. Seriously, just hide their newsfeed and you'll find that your facebook experience vastly improves. You'll see more posts from people whose posts you actually care about, and less facepalm worth material. It's win-win.
Also distancing myself from politics was the best thing i ever did. I gave up, honestly. I'm not going to change anything, and i simply don't read enough to really be very knowledgeable about the subject matter. I'm not an economist, and i didn't read enough political philosophy to have a high-level debate about any of these matters. My opinions are that of a layman, and a layman's opinion are inconsequential. These days, i like to think i know my own limitations and it's best that i strive to be better at what i need to be better at instead of wasting my time with something that won't matter in the end, not even a trickle.
I gave up on trying to be an intellectual. I'm not an intellectual and i'll never will be. I simply don't have the willpower necessary to sacrifice all that i'd have to in order to truly become one. I don't read enough news, enough books, i don't watch enough news, i don't talk enough about it with the right people... In the end all i'm ever going to do is have a layman's argument with other layman's and try to exert my "superior" knowledge on those layman's i know know less than i do. And that's an exercise in futility. In the end, i'll be doing nothing but parroting those that know more about the subject matter than i do whilst talking to other people that are undoubtedly parroting other people, simply because i hardly don't know enough about the discussion in order to be capable of new, original thought. Me, and everyone else i might argue with, are just going to parrot whatever stroke our fancy as a good opinion, and in the end, exactly zero fucks will be given in the grand scheme of things.
When you stop to actually really think about it, it's kind of embarassing, really, to actually have a serious argument about anything with anyone about everything other than what you're truly knowledgeable about with someone that's equally knowledgeable about it. If you're not knowledgeable enough you simply won't be capable of original thought. At best, you'll be able to form semi-coherent arguments with broken fragments of information that wouldn't survive a nanosecond of high-level critical thinking.
I've been a fool for too long, wasting my time arguing away on the internet and in-person about things i don't know enough about, prattling away happily whilst quoting philosophers i didn't study seriously and happily reciting news articles that i read inconsequentially. Just because i took things a little bit more seriously than 99,9% of the people do doesn't entitle me to patronize them or act as if i'm an intellectual or even intelectually superior to any of them. I once thought i was smarter than most people, now i realize it's not me who's smart, it's them that are dumb, and arguing anything is pointless. If i argued with someone who was intelectually superior to me, or even just more knowledgeable, i'd have my ass handed to me, so who am i to say anything?
TL;DR: Don't take internet arguments seriously. The internet is not SRS BSNS. Don't discuss seriously what you haven't seriously studied, don't engage in intellectual debate unless you're knowledgeable enough to be capable of original thought and have a serious grip on the subject matter, otherwise you'll just rely on fallacies and parroting the words of those who know. Don't enter any argument if you're not prepared to have that same argument with people that have seriously studied the subject matter, otherwise you'll just be a fool discussing with other fools. Embrace the IDGAF philosophy.
