https://www.beeper.com/

Matrix client that lets you bridge a variety of chat apps. I imagine you’re using slack and at least one of the other messaging apps they support

https://www.howtogeek.com/you-can-still-buy-a-dumb-tv-but-should-you/ This article outlines the situation really well. your two options to not be spied on out of the box are to buy a terrible TV or to buy a commercial one. They dont make "dumb tvs" anymore. I wonder if theres a way to implement one's own firmware n all that to turn a nice samsung into something more private.

this is baller i fw it

Samsung TV's have an ai assistant: https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-redefines-ai-search-on-smart-tvs-with-a-smarter-bixby-voice-assistant

Samsung Ai assistant privacy policy: https://d264isyiyrfhr3.cloudfront.net/storage/tos/usa/2.1.3/1765237389944/eng/usa_eng_pp.html

Other Samsung Scandals if the above wasn't enough: https://cybernews.com/privacy/samsung-settles-lawsuit-collecting-texans-tv-data/

There are some people who are in it for what you've listed (flattened hierarchy, worker owned, etc) but there are others who are in it for personal ownership and control, which may align better w/ a libertarian set of values, but you're not wrong about the ancom aspects

Kinda depends on your preference. A lot of people are proponents for librewolf, but it hasn’t been great for me in the past. Privacy is probably top notch, but I have zen browser a try and I’m not hating it. Could also be a move for you.