{"id":634104,"date":"2026-07-12T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=634104"},"modified":"2026-07-12T03:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:20:00","slug":"the-economics-of-the-surveillance-state-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=634104","title":{"rendered":"The Economics Of The Surveillance State"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economics Of The Surveillance State<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by\u00a0\u00a0John Wilder<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThat was a Beria operation in Stalin\u2019s time.\u00a0 It was deactivated twenty years ago.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0The Living Daylights<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How did KGB agents commit suicide?\u00a0 Two shots to the back of the head.\u00a0 (all photo content as-found)<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember Lavrentiy Beria\u2019s cheerful advice: \u00a0\u201cShow me the man, and I will find the crime\u201d? \u00a0Back in the Soviet Union they had so many laws on the books that everybody broke at least one before lunch, I mean, when lunch was available.\u00a0 And if they didn\u2019t, they could make up something. \u00a0Beria just needed enough spies and informants to spot the right violation.<\/p>\n

Beria would have loved modern America. \u00a0We\u2019ve upgraded his whole operation with better cameras, faster computers, and added actual profit margins.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with Flock\u2122 cameras.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flock Safety\u00a9 cameras now line roads from coast to coast. \u00a0More than 100,000 of the little snitches sit on poles in ditches scanning license plates 24\/7 and however many metric hours in a metric day and metric days in a metric week. \u00a0The cameras rolled out one quiet law enforcement contract at a time until the whole country is now blanketed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not everyone who comes into your life is your friend.\u00a0 Some are just surveillance cameras. (btw, she was innocent, but the police didn\u2019t apologize)<\/em><\/p>\n

Maps of the cameras exist online, but those rely on humans, and it shows only three of the eight within five miles of my house in Modern Mayberry. \u00a0I could plot an avoidance route if I had nothing better to do than play spy versus spy on my commute, or build a detector like Benn Jordan did.<\/p>\n\n

Most of us have jobs and families instead. \u00a0But, hey, we\u2019ve funded a system so that every time you get on the road, you\u2019re creating a record that will last as long as they have storage.\u00a0 And cops can now use this to stalk their ex-wives, so it\u2019s a double win, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How did the farmer stalk his ex?\u00a0 He tractor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next up?<\/p>\n

Ring\u2122 doorbells joined the neighborhood watch program without asking their \u201cowner\u2019s\u201d permission. \u00a0<\/strong>When several co-eds were murdered in Idaho a couple of years ago, investigators pulled Ring\u00a9 footage to track a suspect\u2019s car. \u00a0A subpoena moves quicker than a polite request and never waits for the doorbell to be answered, so they got all the data that they needed to catch the guy.\u00a0 I\u2019m okay with catching murderers, but how many people will be caught in fishing dragnets for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?<\/p>\n

Where exactly are you going at 2 a.m., citizen?<\/p>\n

Laptops aren\u2019t safe, either.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A hacker got grabbed in Finland on his way out of the country. \u00a0Prosecutors used the connection with Microsoft\u2019s\u00a9 handy Global Device Identifier\u2122 to identify him. \u00a0One persistent number tied his computer to all the mischief. \u00a0Microsoft\u00ae handed over the records after the usual court paperwork and a feeble, \u201coh, stop . . . customer privacy . . . .\u201d \u00a0My operating system apparently keeps better tabs on me than my own mother, but at least Ma Wilder has the excuse of being dead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wonder if my FBI agent likes the jokes I make?<\/em><\/p>\n

Then there is Windows Recall\u00a9 on the fancy new Copilot\u2122 machines. <\/strong>\u00a0It snaps pictures of your screen every few seconds while you work and builds a searchable scrapbook of\u00a0everything<\/u><\/em>\u00a0you looked at. \u00a0Local storage only<\/p>\n

They promise. \u00a0Pinky swear, even.<\/p>\n

Still feels like my laptop decided to start a scrapbooking hobby without telling me first.<\/p>\n

Besides, my ISP already knows every site you visit and how long you lingered. \u00a0Edward Snowden spilled the beans years ago on the big programs that pulled data straight from the servers of Microsoft\u2122, Google\u00ae, Apple\u00a9, Facebook\u2122 and the Rest\u00ae. \u00a0Fiber-optic taps caught traffic in bulk, Then three-letter outfits and tech companies worked hand in glove.<\/p>\n

The result is giant databases full of regular people doing regular things.\u00a0 But don\u2019t worry!\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been good, you\u2019re fine.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re Hillary Clinton or Jeff Epstein, all the data will be lost.<\/p>\n

Big Tech loves this data game because it prints money for them. \u00a0They track my habits down to the weirdest details (really, kittens eating salami?) and sell the profiles to insurers, advertisers, and anyone else with a checkbook.<\/p>\n

My patterns become their product. \u00a0They turn my life into a spreadsheet and then mark it up like a used-car dealer who knows you really need that transmission fixed today.<\/p>\n

Speaking of cars, they\u2019re getting chatty, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Modern ones log every trip, every hard brake, every late-night drive. \u00a0Some already phone home to the manufacturer and won\u2019t work unless the software license is up to date. \u00a0Insurance companies will pay good money for a direct feed on how I actually drive instead of guessing from your age and ZIP code.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, the car might call the cops if it thinks I had one too many. \u00a0My pickup turns into the world\u2019s most expensive designated snitch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hopefully, during the 4th\u00a0of July holiday you didn\u2019t get distracted and miss the big picture:\u00a0 The British blew a 13 colony lead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ninety-nine percent of us carry cell phones that never stop reporting. \u00a0Every search, every video, every song gets logged. \u00a0Cops have started treating a phone left at home like\u00a0suspicious behavior<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019m not making this up). \u00a0The little rectangle in your pocket is the most reliable witness I never hired.<\/p>\n

Big companies with this much reach do have a kryptonite\u00ae:\u00a0 governments.\u00a0 <\/strong>They do exactly what the government asks. \u00a0They bent over backwards to limit talk about COVID and elections under the last administration. \u00a0Books and posts that wandered off the approved script vanished from platforms:\u00a0 I know, I made a COVID joke on a podcast and it was sent to podcast jail.<\/p>\n

The same tools will work just as well for whoever sits in the big chair next. \u00a0They already proved they can move fast when someone important asks nicely.<\/p>\n

Harvey Silverglate spelled this out in his book\u00a0Three Felonies a Day<\/em>. \u00a0Federal law has grown so broad and fuzzy that a decent prosecutor can usually find something to charge anyone with. \u00a0Normal life now sits inside a minefield of possible violations. \u00a0Add constant surveillance and the minefield gets floodlights, motion sensors, and a searchable menu.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stalin put a ? after the name of every traitor:\u00a0 they question Marx.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Code of Federal Regulations stretches to roughly 190,000 pages or almost the number of words in a GloboLeftist meme. Rules multiply every year. \u00a0Nobody can read the whole thing, and if they did, another 10,000 pages would have been added in the meantime. \u00a0When surveillance supplies the evidence, the vague laws and regulations become precision weapons. \u00a0Who cares if you\u2019re guilty?\u00a0 Just being charged is punishment for the innocent.\u00a0 The process is the point.<\/p>\n

Government and Big Tech\u00ae now hold detailed maps of where you drive, what you read, who you talk to, and how you spend your time.<\/strong> \u00a0Also notice that they don\u2019t bother to use these to catch murderers in Chicago or gang criminals.\u00a0 No, they\u2019re encouraging that violence.<\/p>\n

Beria ran on fear and informants. \u00a0The updated model runs on sensors, algorithms, and sweet quarterly earnings. \u00a0It costs less to operate and reaches farther and hardly ever complains about running out of vodka.\u00a0 The economics make perfect sense for the people building it, because collecting the data is cheap once the hardware is installed.<\/p>\n

The Surveillance State runs on convenience for the watchers and profit for the builders. Beria would have been jealous of the efficiency and probably asked for stock options.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you love it when totalitarian communism and capitalism overlap?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 07\/11\/2026 – 23:20<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economics Of The Surveillance State Authored by\u00a0\u00a0John Wilder, \u201cThat was a Beria operation in Stalin\u2019s time.\u00a0 It was deactivated twenty years ago.\u201d \u2013\u00a0The Living Daylights How did KGB agents commit suicide?\u00a0 Two shots to the back of the head.\u00a0 (all photo content as-found) Remember Lavrentiy Beria\u2019s cheerful advice: \u00a0\u201cShow me the man, and I… Continue reading The Economics Of The Surveillance State<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":634095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/634095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}