As part of my job, I occasionally talk to homeless people who are schizophrenic and who don’t use drugs.

There tend to be two subgroups. One experiences angels and demons as part of their everyday reality; I talk with them and try to help them out but they’re clearly living on a different plate than me.

Then there are the folks that are convinced they’re living in a surveilled technological nightmare where their movements are being tracked and their attempts at digital activity blocked at every turn. I find it stranger to talk with them than with the supernatural people, because they’re kind of right.

Their focus is unfortunately usually on themselves only (“my email keeps getting hacked, every time I get a phone they find out what my new number is,” etc) but it’s hard not to agree with the overall sentiment.