There are probably multiple flashy clients and gui’s for it, but if you’re already used to the terminal, I’d recommend rsync. This might be the wrong syntax but something like rsync -av ~/local/project servername:/var/www/html/ would take your local files and update the web directory of your server with only the files that are more recent. Rsync will even read your ssh config file so if you’re got an entry for your server you can just use the host name.

I ran a little blog for a while using a static site generator so I setup the git server on my web server and wrote a git hook where every time I pushed to the repo the server would pull it’s cloned copy of the repo into the html directory. Took me a few hours to setup but it made updating the blog as simple as pushing to the repo.

If you’re downloading video or audio files the risk of malware and viruses is pretty low. Usually the worst thing you’ll find is intentionally sabotaged files that have audio or visual glitches. It’s very hard to create malicious media files because they are viewed by other programs and not executed directly. There is a trick they use sometimes where they will try to trick someone by naming a file “popular song.flac.exe” just check the file extensions before opening them and open them from your media player rather than double clicking the file and you’ll be fine.

The real danger is programs. Any executable file could be dangerous, which includes things like roms too. I personally won’t go near executables because the risk is so high. Having an anti-virus software helps, but some of them like Norton and McAfee are hot garbage that don’t work as advertised. Strangely Micro$oft’s Bitdefender is really good though and free. There is a paid version but if you practice the opsec some of the other posters suggested, you should be fine.

For the most part the terror is theoretical. As others have mentioned there is no practical difference between surveillance companies and three letter agencies, there is a revolving door of employees and information between the two and almost no sunlight between them. Having said that the dystopian fears of misuse are well founded, but as of yet mass surveillance has only really been publicly misused on the personal level. Cops and agents using flock to stalk people, local law enforcement using them in oppressive ways, but we haven’t yet seen it applied at scale.

Realistically, those tools allow for heavy handed control, but Americans are still Americans, they need to be coaxed into being okay with large groups being rounded up for exercising their right to free speech. That’s really where the true danger lies. The Algorithm heavily shapes the opinions of the masses and it is currently and actively being used to do just that. I could write extensively about the how’s, why’s, and who’s but that’s way beyond the scope of your question. Suffice it to say the feed controls the shape of the debate so that there are only two sides when in reality there are dozens for each issue. Just ask yourself when was the last time you saw a post suggesting cutting military spending or getting rid of gendered sports in favor of weight and height based groupings?

ShotCut is alright but it chokes and dies with a large video with complex cuts. I tried using it to edit trailers, a pre roll intro, and an intermission into a 1080p film for a movie night I host and it would hang indefinitely and crash frequently.

For short and simple projects it’s fine, even kind of nice to use.