They say it's not paranoia if they are really out to get you.
Following first the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden that the NSA was indeed out to get virtually every American, as well as last week's Federal appeal's court decision that the NSA's mass spying and collection of virtually all American phone records was not authorized by the Patriot Act and was thus illegal, for Americans it was confirmed that wasn't paranoia, but none other than the government was out to get them all.
As such, we find it somewhat odd that in the following chart showing global sentiment toward paranoia, measured by responses whether others are out to take advantage of you or, instead, others try to be fair, the US ranks almost smack in the middle, with respondents in countries such as Japan, Argentina, Turkey and even Germany ranking more "paranoid" than Americans (offset by such socialist utopias as Sweden and Norway, where altruism seems to reign supreme; the presence of China in this grouping is somewhat questionable).
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Then again. considering the survey was originally conducted in 2011 by the World Values Survey organization, somehow we doubt the US would rank quite as netural now as it did 4 years ago.
Source: John Nelson [9] [9]
