>And then when you're uninformed, they make you believe absurd things.
This makes no sense. How would 'they' make you believe absurd things if they have no channel to you?
I've had the same idea as OP for a long time. The idea is you close off all unidirectional channels of communication leading to you. Don't use social media, don't watch the news, don't turn on the radio, don't watch YouTube commentary.
After all this, I don't hold any absurd beliefs; there is no way 'they' could make me. But I do know plenty of people who believe absurd things because of media. I'm guessing you don't know many old people who watch YouTube videos about the coming endtimes? I know a few. How about people up in arms about transgenders in sport, even though they've never watched sport in their lives?
>However, I would like to offer that just because something is not real to you, it does not invalidate its existence. Those are still very real concepts that matter to someone
This is obvious, and it's pointless to bring up because that's not the issue. The point was never to 'invalidate the existence' of something, but to realize that geographically distant things have little effect on your life, and embrace that.
Palestinian children are being starved; I know this, though I have not seen it, and I cannot do anything about it. Even if I flew there to give them food, I'd be turned into an Israeli pincushion. What is the use in me knowing this in the first place? This knowledge only serves to fill me with despair and guilt. Sometimes you wonder if that's the point.
The more sinister thing is that you are presented 'facts' you have no ability to verify on your own, so you must implicitly trust the network presenting it to you. But all the networks, social media or mainstream news, have demonstrated they cannot be trusted, I have seen with my own eyes how they lie. It is no use trying to sort truth from lies, there is no meaningful way to distinguish it anymore. Unless you can dedicate all your waking hours to researching current events, there's no point listening at all.