I agree in a scale-dependent way, where "politics" is really offhand for "non-local politics", which is my fault for assuming that's what most people who say politics or Geo Politics (the words in op's post) mean. I think local politics are underrated, and national (often including state) politics are vastly, vastly overrated time sinks.

(full disclosure: I'm active in local politics, I was appointed to the bicycle-pedestrian committee for failure to keep my mouth shut)

Note that on the big scale, for 99% of people, their political options mostly consist of voting, and even the most careful reading of daily news isn't going to change their voting patterns. They've already decided what they think is best for the world. You can still vote without participation in the looney bin machine, if that's your preference. If you want to change people's minds, even politically, the best way to do it is probably not repeating political (news) stuff, but actually living a certain way.

> push for issues that you care about to make the world better for everyone.

Yes. Or make it worse, if you get it wrong :) (cue Seeing Like a State, etc)