reSee.it Podcast Summary
The discussion links the ongoing COVID-19 crisis to a broader expansion of the US surveillance state, highlighting biometrics, mass digitalization, and AI as accelerants. The guests outline how facial recognition and related technologies are being deployed by both public agencies and private contractors, expanding the reach of surveillance across everyday life.
Clearview AI is described as a private company building a large facial‑recognition database shared with law enforcement. Its CEO cites a 26% increase in police use and a growing roster of clients, with about a quarter of US police departments already using the tech. The company faces lawsuits in Illinois under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, and the broader context includes NYT attention and debates about privacy, consent, and public awareness. Broze argues biometrics extend beyond faces to gait and other traits, and he notes real‑world concerns from a store in Mexico employing camera‑based temperature checks that could also store face prints.
The conversation then ties this to Peter Thiel’s network, including Palantir, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, and Moldbug/Curtis Yarvin, suggesting a pervasive influence on surveillance and security programs. Broze connects Palantir’s post‑Trump expansion with broader neocon and technocratic circles, arguing these networks shape defense, intelligence, and domestic security policies.
On border security, the speakers describe Trump’s push for a biometric, “smart” wall comprising facial-recognition cameras, license-plate readers, drones, and even DNA collection. They discuss expanded border‑patrol powers to seize devices and inspect them, the concept of a constitution‑free zone extending inland (roughly 100 miles), and the involvement of foreign contractors like Elbit Systems. Biden’s continuity is anticipated, with biometric expansion continuing.
The dialogue shifts to social media data, biometric scraping, and predictive analytics, noting MITRE’s capability to extract fingerprints from images and the growth of Clearview‑style databases. They reference social-credit‑style effects already appearing, including a 32% figure from a Kaspersky report about social media affecting loans or jobs.
Broze’s book How to Opt Out of the Technocratic State anchors the Solutions segment, drawing on Konkin’s Agorism and counter-economics. He describes “exit and build” and “hold down the fort” as paths to resilience, plus a warning that apathy is death. The Greater Reset and a forthcoming 14‑part documentary, The Pyramid of Power, are cited as efforts to surface practical solutions—growing food, alternative currencies, digital defensibility, and local organizing via freedom cells. The hosts emphasize tangible steps in a world of pervasive surveillance and expanding biotech infrastructure, urging active, solution‑oriented resistance.