Many smart TVs allow you to disagree to the privacy policy during setup, which allows you to use it as a “dumb TV” which doesn’t connect to WiFi or have other apps installed. I know Sony TVs do this and I’ve heard others do the same.

Governments aren’t fundamentally bad. Having a governing body along with laws and regulations is a good thing when done beneficently. For example, government is responsible for access to public education, libraries, banking, worker safety, and hospitals - all of which are objectively good things to have as a society. The problems usually occur when some individuals have more power/influence than others to choose what the government does, which is what’s happening in much of the world right now.