History Main / ImproperlyParanoid

** General Newcastle on ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' believes that Superman is evil just because he's an alien and nothing else. When he becomes a founding member of CADMUS and eventually retires, he still keeps a pistol with Kryptonite-laced bullets next to him at all times because he thinks Superman will eventually come and try to kill him (and never seems to consider that CADMUS might do it because HeKnowsTooMuch...).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "The Drumhead", an accidental explosion of the ''Enterprise'''s warp core happens at the same time that it's discovered there is a Romulan spy on board and [[InsaneAdmiral Starfleet Intelligence Admiral Norah Satie]], believing [[ThereAreNoCoincidences this is not a coincidence]] (a thing she is definitely wrong about but she won't hear any facts telling her otherwise), [[GeneralRipper begins a witch-hunt]] that threatens to destroy the careers of every single crew member of the ship (beginning with an innocent technician who's only crime is lying that he is half-Vulcan when he is actually half-Romulan and then going after Picard when he protests). Picard defuses the witch-hunt (and destroys Satie's career) by showing her superior officer that she's running on pure paranoia.

The end result is never good. In fact, it almost always ends in a SelfFulfillingProphecy (either directly causing something bad to happen, or making everybody else hate the paranoid person and seek to destroy them), and/or NiceJobFixingItVillain, NiceJobBreakingItHerod, and all the tropes in that vein (they're also incredibly vulnerable to [[ParanoiaGambit Paranoia Gambits]] and are often what said gambits aim to achieve, though using one [[HoistByHisOwnPetard might end up backfiring in turn]] because of the severe overreaction that can occur). All because they can't live with their fear, however mild and background and running on long odds it may be. Can also lead to BullyingADragon, and the consequences of ''that'' trope as well. If carried out ''after'' the fear has manifested, but still blown significantly out of proportion, this kind of reaction counts as DisproportionateRetribution.

* The French-Canadian sketch show ''Phylactère Cola'' has an [[ArtShift animated sketch]] about the inhabitants of a town getting increasingly paranoid of the local reclusive scientist, whom they suspect is behind the succeeding disappearances of a dog and a boy. Sure enough, they eventually decide to mob him, and he retaliates by [[spoiler:unveiling a ''[[HumongousMecha giant robot]]'', which ends up accidentally toppling over and killing himself ([[KillEmAll alongside everyone else]]) during his rampage]]. The boy and the dog turn up after the dust settles, and then we see the name of the town on a sign: [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulName Paranoiaville]]]].

** The Inquisition lives in between this Trope and ProperlyParanoid, DependingOnTheWriter: any time they so much as ''suspect'' Xenos or Chaos taint, out comes the KillEmAll measures like [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]]. [[WeAreStrugglingTogether They are willing to perform this even if it means going to war against other branches of the Imperium]], such as the Space Marines (a pretty famous fluff piece of the Space Wolves involves the Marines fighting an Inquisitorial task force that had been sent to kill all of the Guard soldiers (''and evacuating civilians'') on a certain planet just because they were fighting against Chaos, a mission they were willing to fulfill even after the Marines told them that none of the other humans were tainted ''and'' assured them that they were willing to fight to protect said citizens). To be fair to the Inquisition, considering the consequences of being wrong and/or missing something and how rapidly it can snowball, you can't blame them for having very twitchy trigger fingers. Of course, many take this as an excuse to leave the MoralEventHorizon long in the distance...

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this is taken to extreme and horrific levels with the destruction of Trafalgar Law's homeland of Flevance. When the citizens all come down with horrifying White Lead Syndrome from decades of mining said white lead, everyone assumes the worst and that it's contagious, [[QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice forcibly sealing the town in and gunning down anyone who tries to escape]], out of fear for their safety, unaware that the disease is only hereditary, not contagious. Unfortunately, nobody believes those who try to explain this, and when the citizens try to force their way out, the surrounding countries take it as a reason to commit justifiable genocide. Even worse, Law's childhood friends [[WouldHurtAChild are massacred as well]], despite the fact that they were promised to be spared.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this is taken to extreme and horrific levels with the destruction of Trafalgar Law's homeland of Flevance. When the citizens all come down with horrifying White Lead Syndrome from decades of mining said white lead, everyone assumes the worst and that it's contagious, forcibly sealing the town in and gunning down anyone who tries to escape, out of fear for their safety, unaware that the disease is only hereditary, not contagious. Unfortunately, nobody believes those who try to explain this, and when the citizens try to force their way out, the surrounding countries take it as a reason to commit justifiable genocide. Even worse, Law's childhood friends [[WouldHurtAChild are massacred as well]], despite the fact that they were promised to be spared.

* One story arc on ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' centered around a conservative Congressman who secretly had an affair with his (male) aide. [[DomesticAbuse The Congressman broke the aide's arm during a fight]], and became paranoid that he would expose their affair as revenge. In spite of the side just wanting to move on with his life, the Congressman tried to frame him for kidnapping. [[EpicFail Fortunately for the aide, he turns out to be so terrible at it that Bayliss and Pembleton are able to easily clear his name.]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this is taken to extreme and horrific levels with the destruction of Trafalgar Law's homeland of Flevance. When the citizens all come down with horrifying White Lead Syndrome from decades of mining said white lead, everyone assumes to worst and that it's contagious, forcibly sealing the town in and gunning down anyone who tries to escape, out of fear for their safety, unaware that the disease is only hereditary, not contagious. Unfortunately, nobody believes those who try to explain this, and when the citizens try to force their way out, the surrounding countries take that a reason to commit justifiable genocide. Even worse, Law's childhood friends [[WouldHurtAChild are massacred as well]], despite the fact that they were promised to be spared.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this is taken to extreme and horrific levels with the destruction of Law's homeland of Flevance. When the citizens all come down with horrifying White Lead Syndrome from decades of mining said white lead, everyone assumes to worst and that it's contagious, forcibly sealing the town in and gunning down anyone who tries to escape, out of fear for their safety, unaware that the disease is only hereditary, not contagious. Unfortunately, nobody believes those who try to explain this, and when the citizens try to force their way out, the surrounding countries take that a reason to commit justifiable genocide. Even worse, Law's childhood friends [[WouldHurtAChild are massacred as well]], despite the fact that they were promised to be spared.

* In ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Reverend Englund discovers that a student in the school named Sarah is actually a half-demon named Kellith, and becomes convinced she plans to TakeOverTheWorld. While normally, he'd be right since he's encountered all manner otherworldly creatures that have done harm, in this instance, Sarah had undergone a HeelFaceTurn and planned to spread love throughout the world. Unfortunately, Englund's delusions lead him to enlist the help of the Syndicate to eliminate her...which ends up causing a colossal amount of damage.

* ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'': During his spiral in the Pogtopia arc, [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Wilbur]] was completely paranoid about everyone except Tommy either turning on him or dropping him once he's no longer useful. This carries across to after [[spoiler:he dies and is brought BackFromTheDead as well, where he talked to Phil about imagining him having a spatula put through his skull while building the burger van before Phil forced him to interact with Ranboo]]. His content creator counterpart eventually even [[WordOfGod confirms]] in a Reddit comment that his character "was suffering from intense paranoia and delusions".

* ''{{Literature/Wulfrik}}'': Baron Udo Kruger is obsessed with the idea of his wife being unfaithful to him, to the point where he keeps a wizard on staff just to make sure she isn't being seduced when he's not around. Nothing can reassure him, including the wizard telling him there's nothing to fear or the fact that his wife is ''stupendously ugly''. And as a result, it only takes a barbarian warlord calling him a cuckold to make him rush prematurely out of the town's defenses where his cavalry is swiftly destroyed, followed by the rest of the town.

** The CADMUS plotline on ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' is also eventually revealed to be this: people who were concerned about superhumans going evil jumping the gun straight into FantasticRacism, [[DayOfTheJackboot fascist tactics]], inhuman weapon experiments, and [[KillThemAll attempted genocide]] — not to mention other war crimes like ''launching a Kryptonite-laced nuke right at a still-evacuating island, thinking of all the innocent people as "acceptable casualties" as long as Superman (and Doomsday) died''. The CADMUS example might ''possibly'' skirt the line between this and ProperlyParanoid. On the one hand, the series goes to great lengths to imply that it is reasonable to be afraid of what uncontrolled superhumans could do, to the point of introducing an alternate universe League that went rogue just to prove the point. However, it is also frequently pointed out that CADMUS may have partially ''started'' the problem by doing things like creating Doomsday, attempting to kill or discredit the League, and attempting to create their own army of superhuman mooks — some of whom were only children — all before the League had done much to ''them.''

Fear is a part of existence, and in its true form, is not pleasant to experience. Scared people are prone to knee-jerk decisions, which is understandable. However, not all fear experiences are created equal. Some fears are immediate, apparent, and deep... and others are based around vague possibilities, whispers, rumors, stuff that ''could'' happen with variable or unknown odds. It is a low, background fear that lurks in the back of your mind, the classic paranoia. And sometimes, people just can't live with it and do something to assuage it. When this actually has some merit, then the sufferer is ProperlyParanoid.

The end result is never good. In fact, it almost always ends in a SelfFulfillingProphecy (either directly causing something bad to happen, or making everybody else hate the paranoid person and seek to destroy them). NiceJobFixingItVillain, NiceJobBreakingItHerod, and all the tropes in that vein (they're also incredibly vulnerable to [[ParanoiaGambit Paranoia Gambits]] and are often what said gambits aim to achieve, though using one [[HoistByHisOwnPetard might end up backfiring in turn]] because of the severe overreaction that can occur). All because they can't live with their fear, however mild and background and running on long odds it may be. Can also lead to BullyingADragon, and the consequences of ''that'' trope as well. If carried out ''after'' the fear has manifested, but still blown significantly out of proportion, this kind of reaction counts as DisproportionateRetribution.

The end result is never good. In fact, it almost always ends in SelfFulfillingProphecy (either directly causing something bad to happen, or making everybody else hate the paranoid person and seek to destroy them). NiceJobFixingItVillain, NiceJobBreakingItHerod, and all the tropes in that vein (they're also incredibly vulnerable to [[ParanoiaGambit Paranoia Gambits]] and are often what said gambits aim to achieve, though using one [[HoistByHisOwnPetard might end up backfiring in turn]] because of the severe overreaction that can occur). All because they can't live with their fear, however mild and background and running on long odds it may be. Can also lead to BullyingADragon, and the consequences of ''that'' trope as well. If carried out ''after'' the fear has manifested, but still blown significantly out of proportion, this kind of reaction counts as DisproportionateRetribution.

This is not TheParanoiac. That trope's examples are demonstrated to be paranoid all the time, about everything, so they're afraid of everything. And often, such behavior will result in purely defensive reactions (going off the grid, tinfoil hats, etc) or [[{{Jerkass}} constant belligerence]] in an attempt to destroy threats before they can develop. This trope is about when people are unable to live with the mild fear of certain possibilities and end up making decisions that not only affect ''other'' people negatively but very often [[SelfFulfillingProphecy end up causing the exact situation they feared to come to pass]]. This is especially prevalent if the being who does it should be smart enough to see the very clear possible backfires and downsides (or has direct past experience of these kind of actions not working), but does it '''anyway'''.

Fear is a part of existence, and in its true form, is not pleasant to experience. Scared people are prone to knee-jerk decisions, which is understandable. However, not all fear experiences are created equal. Some fears are immediate, apparent, and deep... and others are based around vague possibilities, whispers, rumors, stuff that ''could'' happen with variable or unknown odds. It is a low, background fear that lurks in the back of your mind, the classic paranoia. And sometimes, people just can't live with it and do something to assuage it. When it actually has some merit, this is ProperlyParanoid.

* Plenty of historical dictators were this. A random example is UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, whose purges to protect himself crippled the Soviet Union's military, yet led him to trust UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler on the basis of "I see myself in him and I would never do that", in the face of loads of evidence to the contrary. Another is Pol Pot, who was so afraid of "intellectuals" "contaminating" his dictatorship that he went as far as executing people ''solely because [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses they wore glasses]]''.

Many times, it doesn't. It is also always an overreaction. Not that that matters. All that matters to the sufferer is to assuage that fear.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'': BigBad Durandal is so paranoid about the possibility that [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne]] might stand in his way (partially because they're such wild cards [[ControlFreak he can't figure out how they'd react to his actions]]) that he tries to have them assassinated. Ironically, Kira later observes that he and Lacus ''agreed'' with Durandal and would've been willing to go along with his plans, but [[HoistByHisOwnPetard considering he just attacked them out of the blue without warning,]] they took [[BullyingADragon great]] [[ItsPersonal offense]].