Line #75 Main/TheSchizophreniaConspiracy


1	->''"By the time all the filthy sapiens have been hooked up to the blood milking machines by their Cro-Magnon captors during the 1000 year night, most people will realize that the paranoid schizophrenics were right about global warming being a scam."''
2	-->-- '''Lord Blødmaw, 735th Archduke of The Unblinking Eye''', ''House of The 1000 Year Night''
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4	Would it surprise you to learn that most schizophrenics are in fact not paranoid, and that paranoid schizophrenia is in fact only one of 6 types of the disorder? [[note]]The other types are disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, residual, and simple schizophrenia.[[/note]] Yet all media always portray schizophrenics as being [[TheParanoiac ridiculously paranoid]]. Why is this?
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6	[[SelfDemonstratingArticle It's because Hollywood is attempting to cover up the other types of schizophrenia and propagandize the paranoid type to make everyone assume]] that paranoia ''is'' schizophrenia, causing people to dismiss all [[TheConspiracy conspiracies]] as schizophrenic delusions so that everyone will dismiss cries that [[NebulousEvilOrganisation The Secret Cabal of the Brotherhood of the Cold Sun]] is taking over America with its black helicopters and its air-conditioners. Or else, Hollywood wants you to think that schizophrenics are [[ConspiracyTheorist founts of wisdom when it comes to conspiracy theories]] and [[YouHaveToBelieveMe must never be blown off simply because they're insane]], even if what they think the Secret Cabal of the Brotherhood of the Cold Sun is doing would break the laws of physics, in order to distract you from their ''real'' activities. It depends on the studio and film-maker.
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8	In medical jargon, schizophrenia is a general term for a group of disorders that are all characterized by disorganized thought, general difficulty in thinking, delusions, hallucinations, and jerky or "odd" movement. This is combined with a lack of desire and motivation, and other "negative symptoms" such as the loss of typical abilities like speech or empathy. Of course, this is just what the doctors ''want'' you to think.
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10	Schizophrenia is Greek for "splitting of the mind." It should not be confused with SplitPersonality, but it often is in fictional works. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most obvious and dangerous of the 6 types with the most overt symptoms, but isn't as common as you'd think based on media depictions. (Yes, only one of the schizophrenic's personas knows the truth about the Secret Cabal of the Brotherhood of the Cold Sun.)
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12	It's called schizophrenia because some abilities are impaired, but not all. The Brotherhood of the Cold Sun doesn't want people to know the other symptoms of schizophrenia so we will all be docile after the sun has been blocked. Also, a diagnosis of schizophrenia requires that the disturbed functioning persist for at least six months; in real life, it is impossible for a doctor to take one look at someone and instantly diagnose them as schizophrenic. In fiction, however, it happens all the time.
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14	The Brotherhood of the Cold Sun has not infiltrated all the dramas and medical shows, and such shows are often more accurate; but most will show schizophrenics in recovery with [[NoMedicationForMe horrible medications that are depicted as being worse than the illness]]. Anti-psychotic medication is heavy-duty stuff, but things have improved since Thorazine. Today there are newer, gentler medications and ways to work around side effects -- even if it does mean you can end up taking more pills for side-effects than for the schizophrenia! The Brotherhood of the Cold Sun is happy to help...
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16	Not every ConspiracyTheorist is schizophrenic, and not everyone suffering from schizophrenia is necessarily a Conspiracy Theorist. [[OverlyLongGag The Brotherhood of the Cold Sun just wants you to think that.]] Fear the night!
17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
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22	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
23	* In ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', Creator/BradPitt plays a paranoid schizophrenic, while Creator/BruceWillis plays a man sent back in time to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong save the Future from a viral plague]] but everyone assumes he's a paranoid schizophrenic because he claims he was sent back in time to save the Future from a viral plague. Additionally, most of the other patients at the hospital Creator/BruceWillis's character was at were quite paranoid or [[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/12_Monkeys#Dialogue delusional]].
24	** To develop his character, Pitt observed real-life real-time interactions of people who (at that time) had been treated for mental illness. From a first-person account (no longer present at [[http://www.dontdwell.org/blog/sample-chapter/ this link]], except from [[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DSNGj8KV6E4J:www.dontdwell.org/blog/sample-chapter/ Google's cache]]) of a man with bipolar disorder:
25	-->My doctor heard from the producer of the movie that Brad wanted to research the role and was looking for people to interview...I said yes. [A]t that time I was still mentally unstable... Brad walked into the room with a stack of 3×5 cards. He said he had some movie lines on the cards and wanted to know how we would act out the situation on the card. I remember show[ing] him how I would act... Watching the movie it turned out to be a classic scene. Brad giving the tour in the psych ward was fairly close to me at this time.
26	* ''Film/CleanShaven'': Peter is a paranoid schizophrenic who is off his meds and suffering severely. He believes the people at the mental institution put a transmitter in his fingernail and a receiver in his scalp. This is what he blames for the voices he hears. So he digs a hole in his head and slices his fingernail off.
27	* Used in the movie ''Film/ConspiracyTheory''. As it turns out, [[ProperlyParanoid everything the seemingly paranoid schizophrenic says is true]].
28	* ''Film/DonnieDarko'' is a diagnosed schizophrenic, which makes it even harder than might otherwise be the case to determine how much of the plot is real.
29	[[/folder]]
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31	[[folder:Literature]]
32	* The novel ''Dec'' treats Creator/FrancisEDec's less racist ramblings this way.
33	* ''Literature/{{Inside Out\|Trueman}}'' by Creator/TerryTrueman is narrated by a fellow who went into a schizophrenic state and, essentially, never came out. Voices often interrupt the narration to taunt him, and there's rhyming nonsense in the margins of the pages. ("Squish-wish, squish-wish, don't you wish you could squish a wish?") It should be noted that Trueman is a psychologist, so this is presumably an accurate depiction of some form of the illness.
34	* Creator/LarryNiven plays with this in his ''Literature/KnownSpace'' works. Earth's government, The [=ARM=], secretly cultivates paranoid schizophrenics as a sort of defense branch for a world where the majority of the populace has been manipulated into pacifism. It turns out to have come in handy to have a bunch of ProperlyParanoid crazies on staff when the [[ProudWarriorRace Kzinti]] show up.
35	* "Chief" Bromden, [[UnreliableNarrator the narrator]] of Ken Kesey's ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest''. One of the main themes of the novel is the patients' struggle against the "Combine", a vast force trying to control all of society through forced conformity. Not that this was Kesey's commentary on TheFifties in any way...
36	[[/folder]]
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38	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
39	* Jack Hodgins discovers he has a brother in a mental institution on ''{{Series/Bones}}''. Jeffery has a “schitzoaffective disorder”, which is a real life umbrella term for the category of disorders. As expected, he’s paranoid. He thinks Hodgins is a spy at first and talks about “seeing past the static.” At times he’s fine, but he has uncontrollable paranoid outbursts.
40	* One episode of ''Series/BurnNotice'' ("Signals and Codes") has Team Westen helping a paranoiac who approaches them insisting that his boss is an alien who plans to ruin the lives of several people in preparation for an invasion -- and while his insistence that the boss is an alien is a RunningGag, he is right about the "ruining lives" part because said boss is planning on selling out a list of undercover operatives to the highest bidder.
41	* Averted on ''Series/Cracked2013''. Of the numerous schizophrenics on the show, only one is paranoid and only two (including the paranoid) have been violent.
42	* Diana Reid, the mother of Dr. Spencer Reid from ''Series/CriminalMinds'', has been a paranoid schizophrenic most of her son's life. She's a brilliant academic, but also believes the government is after her, accuses her son's FBI co-workers of being fascists, and sporadically lectures about her field of expertise (15th-century literature) to either her fellow mental institution patients or students created from her own mind. Because schizophrenia carries a risk of genetic heredity, Reid fears ending up like her someday in the future.
43	** Before this reveal, it's implied that growing up with her helped Reid to empathize with another paranoid schizophrenic -- who'd taken a train car hostage believing that all his fellow passengers were government agents -- and talk him down. Or at least try to.
44	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' even has a doctor get it wrong. A schizophrenic goes off his meds, and without knowing anything about his medical history, she says that after a few days he'd "start seeing the world as a very hostile place." Of course, she's [[TheCoroner a medical examiner]], not a psychiatrist, but still...well, it's [[ArtisticLicense CSI]].
45	* The famous Piranha Brothers episode of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' implies this trope in the case of Dinsdale Piranha, a mentally-ill gangster harbouring the paranoid conviction that he's being stalked by a giant hedgehog named Spiny Norman. Only implied, because Dinsdale is never specifically identified as schizophrenic.
46	* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E9TheVoyagerConspiracy The Voyager Conspiracy]]", Seven of Nine goes temporarily crazy from information overload and links most of the major events of the series up to that point into a massive Federation conspiracy to capture her, a Borg Drone. This is easily dismissed until you realize that, even though her conclusion about it being all about her was flawed and delusional, several of her premises were, in fact, quite grounded and made for some tantalizingly uncomfortable questions that were completely swept under the rug by the show. One can't help but wonder if there really WAS a conspiracy going on there: specifically, why was a glorified scout ship on a reconnaissance mission armed with several banned [=WMDs=]?
47	** And where the hell did the tractor beam come from?
48	** An interesting side note is that some neurobiologists think that some forms of schizophrenia may actually be caused by a malfunction in the part of the brain responsible for filtering information for significance and this could potentially cause the afflicted to try and process ALL information equally, looking for patterns and correlations, similar to what Seven experienced. In fact, some scientists even [[http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/computer-scientists-induce-schizophrenia-neural-network-causing-it-make-ridiculous-claims tested this theory with a computer]] and got pretty convincing results.
49	* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S6E7ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]" returns to the home nation of Jonas Quinn, Kelowna on the planet Langara. Diplomatic relations between Kelowna and the SGC are rocky, and SG-1 makes contact with a scientist who claims to be a part of the local resistance planing to overthrow the government. The SGC is interested, especially since the resistance is offering an enticement of a large amount of naquadriah as an incentive, but they ultimately discover that there is no resistance at all. Due to exposure to naquadriah, he has developed advanced delusional schizophrenia and hallucinated the entire conspiracy (an interesting case where the patient thought himself one of the conspirators).
50	[[/folder]]
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52	[[folder:Magazines]]
53	* ''The Journal of Polymorphous Perversity'' had the one-page magazine-within-the-magazine ''Journel [sick] of Schizophrenic Processsssssssss'', full of misspelled and irregularly spaced paranoid ramblings.
54	-->We anticipate their will be five (five) issues for each
55	--->of
56	-->the seasons but they may TAKE one of them away from me.
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Music]]
60	* "Spies" by Music/{{Coldplay}} is about someone who believes spies are watching everything but most other people are oblivious to the danger.
61	[[/folder]]
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63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'' has an odd case in Stuhlinger, of the Victis crew. He was an ordinary ConspiracyTheorist ''before'' the ZombieApocalypse, and after it began he took up eating zombie flesh in order to survive. Eating "The Flesh" allows him to [[HearingVoices hear the voice]] of Richtofen, the man controlling all of the zombies, who drives him even further into his crazy conspiracies.
65	* Kenji from ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is implied to be schizophrenic, but either way, he is ''very'' paranoid.
66	* The protagonist of the [[ShowWithinAShow television show]] ''Address Unknown'' in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' is diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenic" allegedly caused by a brain tumor. Or as least, [[UnreliableNarrator our protagonist]] says this happens.
67	* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}: Lab Rat'', a companion comic to the game, Aperture Science researcher Doug Rattmann has this type of schizophrenia. Without medication, he experiences hallucinations such as that his CompanionCube is talking to him and that the AI MasterComputer in charge of the laboratory is out to kill him. This is an odd case in that, luckily for him, the latter is [[ProperlyParanoid actually true]]. His constant paranoia allows him to be the SoleSurvivor of [=GLaDOS=]'s purge of the scientists. Hidden away, he manipulates the system to put protagonist Chell into a position to enact the events of the two games.
68	* Boyd Cooper from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''? His mind was a... nice... ''normal... neighborhood...'' except no, oh no. Streets were twisted, and if you stood in one place, cameras popped up from parking meters and took pictures, and the only inhabitants were either the Rainbow Squirts, [[spoiler:girl scouts who were behind the conspiracy,]] and the G-Men, men with red eyes, green skin and long, brown trench coats, who tried to figure out the conspiracy. [[spoiler:And the level didn't end with you curing his sick, sick mind, but ''unleashing'' his psycho pyromaniac alter ego so that he would unlock the gate to the mental asylum. And then burn the asylum to the ground.]]
69	** He got better after tossing his last Molotov.
70	--->'''Boyd:''' [[CreepyMonotone I am the Milkman. My milk is delicious.]] * throws Molotov milk cocktail*
71	** TropeNamer for MilkmanConspiracy.
72	[[/folder]]
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74	[[folder:Webcomics]]
75	* In ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'', Liquid is diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenic" or "total whackjob".
76	[[/folder]]

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