Hofstadter’s paranoid style targets whole ways of life, not particular persons
Evidence
For Hofstadter, “paranoid” is not a clinical diagnosis of individual mental disturbance. In his picture of conspiracism, conspiracists do not see themselves as singled out by a hostile world directing its animus specifically against them but rather see hostile forces directed “against a nation, a culture, a way of life.” Hofstadter calls this style paranoid, he explains, “simply because no other word adequately evokes the qualities of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind.” — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 111
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines Hofstadter’s ‘paranoid style’ as collective rather than individual-directed hostility.
- XREF: connects to: Hofstadter framed political conspiracism as a paranoid style, not clinical illness — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 61; Hofstadter’s ‘paranoid style’ was not a clinical diagnosis of individuals.