Advertisers, marketers, and product placers for the most part aren't armed with the tools nor legal authority to implement capital punishment.

>> The surveillance is already there, but it is not acted on for the most part in everyday life. But there may be a clock on how long that will last.

> Yes it is. Think advertising, marketing, and product placement. It's so pervasive you can't even see it.

But that's not the state. That'd be much more frightening.

Yes it is? I mean, I consider the military part of "the state" and the various branches participate in advertising, marketing, and product placement.

Just look at this: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-army-marketing-esports-co...

"After Congress withheld half of its ad budget due to an audit that revealed millions in spending that didn't deliver results, the Army dissolved its marketing division, relocated to Chicago, and revamped its approaches to data and events. Officials told Business Insider they planned to emphasize conferences like Comic-Con and esports festival Pax, saying gamers and programmers "make good soldiers.""

Whoops, got a little too exposed during the audit time to reset the paper trail.

Yep, The United States Military has been working with Hollywood and video game producers to produce propaganda for 3 decades now.

https://mronline.org/2022/08/06/how-the-pentagon-dictates-ho...

Wow, that link was a fascinating read

The majority of large institutions are effectively captured by the state, and to a large extent the converse is true as well. Despotic actions (censorship, surveillance, etc) performed on behalf of the state by megacorps cannot be meaningfully distinguished by despotic actions performed by the state itself under the current legal regime.

A state has at least some illusion of citizen control, while a private company much less. Yes the state _could_ regulate it, but that's already working over chinese whispers (no pun intended)