The USA is not really facing 'transformation into a surveillance state', because it already was that to some degree. I think it is facing more of a redistribution of surveillance resources.
There are some forms of surveillance that are widely considered fine. We just tend not to call them surveillance.
When a highway monitors its level of traffic, or public transportation monitors ridership, that gathers information on groups of people.
When wastewater is tested for disease, that is also attached to groups of people by location.
Audits and investigations into wage theft, labor violations, and other forms of corporate crime often require external surveillance because internal reports are likely untrustworthy.
Appraising the level of need for homeless support in a city requires research about the homeless population.
Police body cams and other attempts to enforce accountability are an attempt at direct video surveillance, for better or worse.
These forms of surveillance have been tiny investments in comparison to the ways our government has invaded privacy in the past, and the monstrous apparatus it's trying to push through now. They're also small potatoes next to the private sector's ability to gather data for profit and social engineering. But they potentially have the ability to make a huge impact because of how critical the information is for ordinary people.
One goal of our current administration is to remove the ability to gather information on certain topics and increase the ability to gather information on other topics that it chooses.
When you have less information available, especially about groups of people, fewer decisions can be made. There is less understanding of why or upon what basis to make a decision at all. 'Fewer things come up.' It is easier to lie about an absence of information the larger it becomes.
When you have more information available, especially about groups of people, more decisions can be made. There is more understanding of why or upon what basis to make decisions. 'More things come up.' It is easier to justify a body of information the larger it becomes.
The information also doesn't have to be true. The resources from gathering accurate information can be redistributed to propaganda or redistributed in a way that persecutes or even engineers groups of people for political advantage.
What is happening is that no matter how bad it was before, even more of the USA's ability to 'observe what is real' has been shifted to 'making (someone's preferred) stuff real.'
Those responsible always saw it that way: like scientists, social workers, road engineers, healthcare professionals have had the TV all morning and now it's their turn to decide what we as a country 'watch.' They want to watch Fox News.
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