Hi Rosie,
Another academic social scientist here, like @Metaphor. I do think that participation is important. Being part of the force for good is part of the kamma that we make, leave to others, and ultimately take with ourselves.
But participating with attachment to the results is very hard in this era. Dealing with the toxicity of politics and the news cycle has been difficult for me. Taking conscious decisions in what kinds of information I allow to claim my attention has helped me. I read the news if I learn something useful from it that affects me or I can act on. I don’t read the news otherwise. SN 12.64 points out that the information we consume is food for our mind, and desire for it leads to dukkha:
Mendicants, there are these four fuels. … What four? Solid food, whether coarse or fine; contact is the second, mental intention the third, and consciousness the fourth. … If there is desire, relishing, and craving for mental intention as fuel, consciousness becomes established there and grows. Where consciousness is established and grows, name and form are conceived. Where name and form are conceived, …
Part of what I have been trying to make my practice is to cultivate metta more fully in my day. The suttas say we should cultivate metta toward everyone. It is very difficult and I am far from this stage but this includes every politician who actively works to increase dukkha in the world. AN 11.15 lists eleven benefits to cultivating metta:
What eleven? You sleep well. You wake happily. You don’t have bad dreams. Humans love you. Non-humans love you. Deities protect you. You can’t be harmed by fire, poison, or blade. Your mind quickly enters immersion. Your face is clear and bright. You don’t feel lost when you die. If you don’t penetrate any higher, you’ll be reborn in a Brahmā realm.
Among the eleven benefits is that the “mind quickly enters immersion.” This indicates that cultivating metta is vital for meditation practice, too. Kp 9 is good, and here are some sutta pointers for other metta phrases one can use:
https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/metta-instructions/10000
So my advice would be: do participate, but participate without attachment, guarding your awareness, and participate with metta.