I am also genuinely interested in further explanation of this view.

I am also in that basket. To me Usenet seems like another, older protocol that achieves practically the same thing. If someone is more knowledgeble, feel free to correct me or explain further.

You can have actual Pacman emoji for the progress :)

I was unfamiliar with those projects too. It seems that these are the private messaging apps: Berty Briar

No problem. You can use extensions like LibRedirect in order to make it automatically change SO to this one.

I agree

Look into OpenStreetMaps site for desktop PCs, and pick one of many android apps for the mobile phones that use OSM (i prefer osmAnd, it has a free premium version on F-droid software store) and you won't be needing to send all your location data to Google ever again.

Is this a more private way of browsing the internet than something like a hardened Firefox or Librewolf?

Don't give up.

In this world, the only thing we truly own is the body we shape everyday

• Sun Ken Rock manga

I also suggest Matrix instead of Discord.

I know, I said that, but thank you for providing a link. I hope it gets implemented.