Noticed that I am extremely tuned out of media discussions bc of Maoism-Autism 
, but that sometimes I need to engage products, because I can't be picky about the battlefields. Vidya was a maladaptive coping mechanism for [fun and exciting] childhood 
for me, so I view old stuff with a distorted perspective and new stuff, I neither have the money nor the time for anything RPG or timesink wise. Same for anime, shows, movies and other stuff.
Now I don't want to be left out of these convos (Read: Struggle sessions about the cultural meaning of thing X or Y) entirely but is there any way to get back up on what a cultural product was about, preferably in-depth and critically?
It's basically Wikipedia for a summary, trailers/let's play to get a sense of the visual and audio aesthetics, and video essays/fandom communities for analysis. Most videogames and movies are so formulaic that you'll more or less get the gist of the game/movie without having to waste time with that shit.
For Goblin Slayer, it was basically:
Read the Wikipedia article Damn, this sounds kinda fashy. Let's watch the first episode that all the weebs are creaming themselves over.
Watches the first 10 minutes of the first episode Jesus Christ, this is the most fascist shit I've ever seen that's not open propaganda for some fascist party. Goddamn.
Scans the various Breadtube videos about how Goblin Slayer is fascist propaganda Well, I guess the anime series continues to be fascist and it's weebs being reactionary shitheads again.
Unless you're an art critic, so basically a Breadtuber, you don't need to watch shit art to say that the art is indeed shit lol. And there are ways to shit on pop culture without coming off as some crank. The trick is to find hobbies that don't tap into pop culture (gardening, exercising, woodcarving, playing around with ham radios, and so on) and frame your criticism as "I would rather tend my garden than play this shitty game/watch this shitty movie."