I followed the Snowden leaks only from MSM sites, so I know little of the details. Most of the comments thus far are "there's nothing you can do."

Can somebody explain in more depth whether this is likely true, or an over reaction, and why?

Is there literally no way to stop the NSA from snooping? What if I built a laptop from multiple separate components ordered from different websites or purchased from different B&M stores using heavily tumbled bitcoin and ordered to several different addresses or PO boxes from a public library, encrypt all of the drives, boot Tails from a flash drive, use a yubikey or some other physical authentication method in addition to passwords, and never connect the laptop to the internet (remove the Ethernet and WiFi cards)? Put some dynamat in the case, just to avoid some type of fancy-ass soundwave-based snooping... maybe even throw some thermite activated by 5 or 10 failed password attempts. Oh, and a super-silent keyboard to avoid password grabbing via the sound the keys make. And a pop-up visor to avoid people looking behind your shoulder.