There's a big difference between bein informed and bein paranoid.

Those informed about the governmental infringements on rights we were taught were germaine as US citizens can tend to make one paranoid when compared to the stark lack of those rights and freedoms today, and can lead to a sense of paranoia.

Many people are instead paranoid from an overall lack of information leading to that position simply because they fail to understand the world around them.

And then ... there's what's considered the text book version of being paranoid which is the psychological condition that "everyone's out to get me" though this perception is typically not be borne out by fact