Im very paranoid about getting into piracy and im not sure if i should or it or not but there are so many things i want that i cant afford.
is there a secure linux os that i can use without a vpn? im pretty use to windows 10 but i was told linux mint is good for this kind of stuff, is that true?
You should use a vpn tho. I use mullvad, the client has a killswitch. Qbittorrent also has one as you can select that vpn connection in the settings. The distro you use does not matter however.
A killswitch in the client is handy, but you can also do this with firewall rules. Allow on the vpn tunnel, block on your network interface except the ip(s)/port to reach your vpn. Perhaps also allow on your local network.
I do it this way on a headless system.