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Paper short abstract

This paper explores narratives produced by predominantly online communities calling themselves 'targeted individuals' (TIs). TIs believe themselves to be harassed, surveilled, or attacked by silent, invisible, nefarious forces including defense, security or intelligence agencies or Big Tech.

Paper long abstract

The acceleration of internet and AI technologies worldwide, the militarization of brain sciences, and growing public awareness of histories of covert warfare by the US against its own citizens have led to the emergence of communities--both online and offline--of individuals who describe themselves as 'Targeted Individuals.' Many TIs believe they are the subjects of secret 'deep state' machinations which include experimental CIA torture programs and their illegal placement in the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). Drawing on ethnographic interviews with one TI organization, Targeted Justice, this paper explores how TI narratives of bodily violation, surveillance, and electronic harassment refract the practices and affects (particularly paranoia) that also characterize practices of psychological warfare (PsyOps) and covert warfare more generally. Rather than create clear dichotomies between 'expert' (rational) and 'lay' (irrational) discourses, I show how these are dialectically related in the context of psychological warfare and targeting. Finally, this paper also grapples with the strange truth that while TIs are often labeled 'conspiratorial,' they also appeal to and aim to reform systems of government and corporate surveillance around which there is broad public agreement.