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If they only knew the real, actual surveillance they're under every second of their lives - every call, every packet online, every entrance into public space, every single move from one location to another...

It's scary that we call these people are "paranoid" for thinking people are watching them - mentally ill, even - when the reality may be (edit: is) far scarier than the fantasy.

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The difference is that while the cost of performing electronic surveillance approximates zero for each individual in a society as a whole, these people believe that the government will pay X agents $N salary to spend time to target them specifically.

Individual surveillance of course happens - but it probably isn't happening to most of these people. It isn't reasonable.

And regardless the yardstick by which we measure the paranoia of people, and especially paranoid schizophrenics, is whether they are prompted to perform harmful actions.

"Sometimes they bumped into him and whispered nonsense into his ear, he said." is a different ball park than believing that the government is watching everything you say.

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