A cold, hard truth a lot of social media influencer privacy / security enthusiasts won't like to admit about themselves is that you are likely to know much less than you think you actually do. Including myself.
A cyber security professional who uses all the normie-tier, status quo products will be far more safe than someone who isn't a professional and is using software focused on privacy or security. If you want to know more you need to study with the mentality like you want to be a professional.
The former groups of people know and understand the products they use and their security properties. Depending on the role they also know how to reverse engineer, discover vulnerabilities and have a consistent threat model when building defences. The latter are often using a product because some place online told them to without much critical care or observation. It shows a lack adaptive technical skills, approach or mindset.
Talented hackers and security professionals using Windows, Apple products and more aren't hiding some secret incompetence. They just know what their requirements and demands are and their choices fill them. They know they can move and use something tougher at any time should their needs change. Changing a software or a device choice is only a small part.
It's a shame that a lot of online spaces have this mentality that many things are completely compromised in secret, when in reality this only works in a nonsensical dystopia where all the intelligent people ONLY work with their perceived threat (whether it is secretive agencies, governments, some advanced actor or whatever else) and the common man is stupid. This is the same mentality that some, like flat earthers, believe how the world is run.
Being a hacker is all about learning how things work, how do you think people get to understand malware without source code? How do the bad guys break into systems they never touched?
Reading can only do so little in a specialty that changes frequently and information is outdated all the time. A book or and not every forum post can't get updated. If you want to start getting serious, log off the forums and go on a security lab platform and check out their guided training, or take a course, or get a entry level job.
