Honestly, not that great. In Ontario, health care has been heavily affected by Doug Ford's Bill 124, which capped nurse's wages at 1% a year for 3 years, causing horribly long wait times and understaffing at hospitals
Memmy has been my favorite, although I wish it would go back to having updates. I understand they're taking a break though and I just need to be patient
I got recommended to read Thinking Fast and Slow on lemmy and I've been really enjoying it, much of it is about hidden assumptions and critical thinking
The examples you gave seem more like conversation starters (how are you, the weather) rather than signs that the conversation will be boring. When I think of boring conversation, I think more about people who only talk about themselves or go on long tangents about things you don't care about
What you think of others matters equally as much. Be a good person and be careful who you surround yourself with. Be descerning of different groups of people and their beliefs/values/culture. Being rejected by a group of bigots is a good thing, and you wouldn't want to be embraced by them to begin with. There are countless historical examples of individuals led astray by group-think, so don't be too concerned what multitudes think of you. It all depends on context, and wanting to be "rejection proof" might signal too much interest in one's reputation, although I'm not accusing you of that.
A beyblade