and it is:
Organized/Gang/Group Stalking.
This is apparently a thing. A thing brought to my attention through a thread in the E/N forum of somethingawful (most entertaining threads in the world if you can sift through the boring shit, by the way). Basically, a guy in this thread is convinced that everyone at his work place is out to get him for whatever reason. After a few pages of him dodging questions as to how he knows this, what he's actually heard, and so on, people start talking about him being a paranoid schizophrenic. Eventually, some comics about group stalking and some videos were posted.
Up until that point I kind of just thought everyone was being an internet asshole, but then the videos were followed by a few posts from people who were like "Holy shit, my buddy from university all of a sudden got really paranoid about random people watching him for the most mundane shit, and then went completely off the deep end. He's all good now...when he's on his meds". So, I went back and clicked on one of the videos, which was by the same guy as the video above, but a different one.
It's fucking fascinating and terrifying. Obviously, mental illness is a horrible thing, but this is the pinnacle of crazy to me. How can anyone actually see four white cars on the way to work and come to the conclusion that they all must be part of some conspiracy to watch them (apparently to find out if they fill up with regular or high-octane)? Every little tiny inconvenience throughout the day is attributed to a larger conspiracy to fuck up this guy's trip from Papa John's to the video store.
Don't get me wrong: it's sad, but it's also interesting in that it explains some of the motivations behind random shootings. Convincing yourself you're the target of a conspiracy is quite a few more steps removed from sane than buying a gun and fighting back is from just going with it.
Also, it's just funny as fuck watching someone film a guy jump starting his car and coming to the conclusion that it's all just a set up to have a spot to watch him drive by.
