Hope for us outside the US is that you just keep your wars at home. Chances for peace in Ukraine increased at least
Lawn_and_disorder
One of the first steps I did was removing the Facebook app and replacing it with a Foss version still maintaining the account. Not until a lot later I deleted it. People do change. Go ahead, add some share buttons.
SMS codes as mentioned and cellular data makes something with Sim card or e-sim a necessity. This can be mitigated by using a portable hotspot or cellular router/modem. Had a teltonika router that autoforwards the SMS as email.
Next best thing to GOS would be Calyx OS. Seems only pixels are getting full updates unfortunataly.. https://calyxos.org/install/ The hardware on the pixels security wise is unfortunately hard to beat. Get a used one?
E/OS seems like a good choice if you don't want to use a pixel.
Monero is the private one. But also if you transfer your broker gotten bitcoins to another bitcoin wallet there is no evidence that that belongs to you. You can have sent them to someone else.
IPs do not show in any ledgers
Internet without VPN is like sending all your things on postcards instead of in envelopes in the mail. Yea https and more mitigate a lot but still.
You can torrent without port forwarding As long its basic it works, just less nodes. I would say you can use any VPN, but makes sense to choose one were you do not have to give them your payment details.