I'm not seeing the "PR for our own surveillance state". But the fact is that surveillance regimes and racist propaganda and intimidation of othered ethnic, raci

I'm not seeing the "PR for our own surveillance state". But the fact is that surveillance regimes and racist propaganda and intimidation of othered ethnic, racial, or religious groups usually go hand in hand. Hyping invented criminality of or subversion by particular groups is key to convincing the populace that they are under threat and should give in to extremely intrusive measures. Each feeds into the other. Political regimes use lies about (often invented) outsider groups to justify their growing power. And then true believers and overzealous apparatchiks begin harassing members of that group, often using those very tools, which leads to a growing perception that yes these people who are receiving international calls are clearly terrorists or terrorist supporters, who need to be surveilled. Etc.