BOLLING WEEKLY
The Independent Brief on Power, Markets and Freedom
“No sides. Just Common Sense.”
Welcome to the first edition of Bolling Weekly, a newsletter for people who don’t want cheerleaders or propagandists: just facts, context, and common sense. No sides. No slogans. Just clarity.
We’ll cover the stories no one else wants to touch – and cut through the noise around the ones everyone else repeats.
Smile: You’re Already on Camera
Amazon clearly decided the Super Bowl was the perfect moment to debut its “Ring Panopticon Home Edition.” In the ad, a lost dog is located through a neighborhood-wide web of Ring cameras – a “heartwarming” tale that would land better if it didn’t double as a sales pitch for turning every American cul-de-sac into a poor man’s remake of “Minority Report.”
The message was as subtle as a brick through your window: “Sure, it’s mass surveillance… but look, an adorable puppy!”
Shockingly, some viewers weren’t fooled. Critics across the spectrum immediately called it what it was: a glossy infomercial for normalizing the idea that your front door – and everyone else’s – should turn into a corporate data vault.
The ad desperately tries to frame this technological tattletale network as wholesome community “teamwork” – George Orwell couldn’t have written it better if he tried. As if spying on the entire neighborhood is the natural evolution of borrowing a cup of sugar from your next-door neighbor.
Instead of asking why we need corporate-controlled surveillance to locate a dog, the ad treats it like the logical next step in civic engagement. You’re not being monitored – you’re just being neighborly!
Beware of this playbook though: the surveillance state rarely ever marches in wearing combat boots. It slips in dressed as “convenience” or – in this case – a feel-good Super Bowl sob story with a golden retriever on the payroll.
This is hardly the first time Americans have been sold a sweeping surveillance apparatus packaged as public service. After 9/11, we were told the Patriot Act was a temporary, “commonsense” tool to keep us safe – a modest expansion of government power during a time ofcrisis. What we got instead was a sprawling domestic, spying regime that vacuumed up phone records, emails and personal data from millions of innocent citizens.
It sets the precedent that fear – or the promise of safety – is the fastest way to get the public to trade away their privacy. The Ring ad is cut from the same cloth: forget the power you’re handing over when you normalize watching and being watched.
The danger isn’t one camera, one ad, or one lost dog. It’s the quiet agreement made without debate, that being watched is simply a cost of modern life.
And here’s the kicker: once a system is capable of tracking a dog across town, it’s also very capable of tracking you.
So yeah, the ad was “heartwarming, ” but it was also a nicely produced reminder that we’re being sold the erosion of privacy with a smiley mascot and a wagging tail. Thanks, Amazon – but some of us still prefer privacy over puppy propaganda.
“Big Brother is watching you.”
George Orwell, 1984
*If this week’s edition sparked a thought, feel free to forward it to a friend, save it for later, or leave a comment. See you next week with a brand-new edition.
Founder: Eric Bolling
Editor-In-Chief: Ilona Braverman
