Life: controlling my inputs

Yesterday I uninstalled all my Lemmy apps, and Reddit, and Bluesky (this one because I wasn't using it, anyway). 

This isn't a "I closed my accounts" post. I still have them but I needed a break. I am a frequenter of two kinds of forums for lack of a better term:

* the first is forums where I am talking to people who have the same interests as me. In practical sense this happens to be my chronic health issues (giving and getting advice and support) and also things relevant to hobbies and interests.

* the second kind is mostly political stuff in some cases this blends over into the "technology" field.

The trigger for me removing my apps was an article about how China was ramping up its semiconductor industry to compensate for the US having export controls and also doing the same ramp up domestically. I pointed out that in several conversations before, people have been unwilling or unable to accept the fact that China could possibly develop an internal semiconductor industry. In fact, they have one but what they don't have is the level of advancement that is seen in the other semi conductor industries that they've been cut off from or will be cut off from through regulations. 

Now, I don't love China and especially don't love their political positions but I have to say that there's a lot of people there, some subset are highly skilled engineers, and they can literally focus their economy on this project if they want. They will do this now that they have powerful incentives and they will flood the market. This is inevitable.

The number of people saying they simply cannot do this (even to the point of saying it's impossible with unlimited resources and time) always struck me as being incredibly racist. I won't go into details or like these discussions but it's really wild how far they will go. It has also been obvious to me that a few times I was having the same argument with the same person on a couple alt accounts. 

This also happens when confronting right wing types, etc. The argument style for these flood the zone people is to overwhelm you with bs "facts" mixed with opinions that largely ignore your actual post. The point is to wear you down so you stop arguing. If you look at the post history it often looks like this is their full time job. You will also encounter many posters with very similar styles either acting at the same time or in nicely spaced grouping (some keep a few accounts going in separate sessions while others switch every hour, for example). 

Even the non-pro garden variety trolls can be exhausting to have to plow through to get decent discussion. Just reading their idiotic takes or blatant racism is disheartening. As we slide closer to elections in the US and Canada where there is a very really threat of authoritarian governments being elected democratically, you might think it's more important than ever to be well informed. That is true but how much better informed am I reading this outrage porn all the time?

The news articles being debated are all available to me directly. An RSS reader will keep me informed. 

I'll update here to report if I stick with this but it seems like a good idea.