Paranoia is a psychological or
psychiatric disorder. When the government is persecuting someone,
their victim isn't suffering from paranoia. He or she is suffering
from persecution.
Paranoia is imaginary persecution.
Paranoia means imagining nonexistent threats. Strictly speaking,
unrealistic and impossible ones.
Being aware of the methods used by
police states, including pseudo-democratic ones like the U.S. (which
is only democratic in the most formal, pro forma, notional
sense, for appearances' sake) and taking defensive measures against
these malign methods, is not paranoia. It's a sign of emotional
health, realistic coping, not pathology. The pathology is the malign
power of the system brought to bear against the dissident.
Unfortunately even leftists have
succumbed to this mystification and misuse of language, which
protects the guilty- the police state agents. The terms “paranoia”
and “paranoid” have become synonyms for “fear” and “afraid,”
or worry or anxiety about possible threats from repressive government
agencies.
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