Taking off the stench of propaganda is just like language learning - full of progress for the first 6 to 12 months without even trying, but then coming to a screeching halt as all the low hanging fruit is picked up and what is left is not only tedious but irrelevant (not “worth it” the same way as knowing how to ask for a restroom, for example). See Matt vs Japan’s side quest to learn Mandarin in order to “fully master” Japanese to see the extent of this neuroticism, but I digress.
“Giving up porn - pfft, I can do that no problem!” you say. That gets you, to make up numbers, 50% there. “Oh, now I have to stop watching the news. Well, OK then. I guess I didn’t really care too much to begin with…” you continue. You’re now 75% there. “What? I have to stop watching my favorite TV shows. OK, now that personally affects me (in a way the war on Ukraine didn’t lmao).” And then the magic word comes out. “I’m entitled to a little fun once in a while!” Once this splinter is eroded sufficiently, we’re 87.5% there.
At this point, asceticism starts to hurt. In no particular order, the next step is music, video games, comedy, all fiction - areas of human activity not harmful in and of themselves as fundamentally as porn or the news, but all the while still operating under the moral and philosophical framework of the times - these days some flavor of nihilism or post-post-modernism. In fact, a few people at the local parish already give up music for Lent for this exact reason - avoidance of distraction and unfruitful states of mind.
Then the copes start to come out. “Art is what makes us human. Deny this and you deny our God-given faculties.” and then turns around to consoom Sam Hyde and 5 cans of Monster. But it is this very act of coping - in violation of Hopko Rule 44 - “Don’t defend or justify yourself.” - that raises some red flags.
A personal armistice as of today is to practice mindfulness and err on the side of less media than more. This accounts for people’s varying levels of sensitivity and personal predispositions to self-destruct. A pattern among spiritual fathers is to not rush people into things and to take their time - harm reduction.