I 'boost' stuff I find interesting, or think needs more awareness, or is just damn funny.
I 'like' stuff to let the poster know I read it and appreciate/acknowledge/see the effort required to make the post. I may not agree with the sentiment but if it's in my locus of topics du jour I make an effort to acknowledge if relevant as an outlier.
Mastodon has no algorithms and I'm on a single user instance (i.e. just me!) so it is what it is - I guess. If you are offended by anything I post or respond to then let me know and we can talk about the topic.