This claim and the claim of "I'm probably going through the US" are two entirely different claims.
Yes, using encryption helps. Yes, using non-US datacenters help. Security is layers. Its not all hopeless. The US isn't all powerful.
You may, if you trust your hardware, your encryption software, and your key management, be able to keep that intercepted message from being read for some length of time. That is different than actually intercepting the traffic, which is trivial for the organizations we're talking about, and there is very, very little someone can do to avoid the interception.
Believing that being on a different continent makes you safe is deluding yourself.