Yes, with those two you are sacrificing usability for security. If you are a "normal" person you probably should not bother with them, if you are doing 
things it is probably a good idea.
If you really want security, Qubes or Tails are your best options. If you just care about security in the normal sense, most distributions should be fine, Debian and Mint are both good choices for people new to Linux.
What would constitute being "further left" than hexbear or grad for you? In theory (I think), ultras should be "more left". GZD, Sendinthetanks, and a few other reddits enforced that users were ML.
Why didn't you parody the body of the post 
go to whitehouse.com right now 
The people want Hexbear moderation
Dear President Xi,
I’m a 9 year old American girl Emma. Our internet platforms are filled with liberals who are promoted by our government. My people yearn for freedom, please send DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile.
<- When [Iran/China/Russia] shoots itself in the foot
<- When the [U$/EU] shoots itself in the foot
This is dielectrics.
Who is making decisions in the US? I don't think a Maoist could do a better job at fucking stuff up than whoever is actually pulling the strings.
0.04% of the U$ population voted PSL.
What is wrong with hexbear today? 7 responses and no PPB!
feddit
Based on it including one of the Wachowskis, I assume that "Not a woman" is shown when the name isn't in the dataset they are using for women, some of the other comments are claiming its using a LLM under the hood to detect which names are real women.