"The CEO of EBay has people following me!" it sounds so ridiculous that I would immediately think the person telling me that has paranoid delusions but it was true.

Thats the thing. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you." - Joseph Heller. Thanks to graton for the correction below.

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Published (1961) before Kurt Cobain (and myself) was born.

Thanks for the correction. I roughly knew the quote and when I googled it Kurt Cobain came back all over the place.

While it definitely predates Nirvana, it doesn't appear in Catch-22.

That's a bold claim considering how many webpages there are claiming that it comes from Catch 22: https://www.google.com/search?q=heller+catch+22+%22paranoid.

On the other hand, my attempts to search for the word "paranoid" in the book on Amazon turn up nothing. And there is a semi-authoritative page that makes the same claim that you do, saying that the closest he found is a quote about a "persecution complex": https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/07/09/paranoid/

Do you have more info?

The previous user is correct, that quote isn't in Catch-22. Nor is any similar sentence.

If multiple sources are saying it is, they must be getting the idea from each other.

nit - this is not a Cobain quote, rather Heller from Catch-22.

Its amazing every time I come across one of these people on youtube that believe they are being gang stalked or e harassed. Even though I am pretty sure they are not being stalked to them it IS real. That must be a terrible existence. If I were to try to convince them otherwise they would assume I am in on it.

It's unfortunate when most people who think they are victims of a conspiracy are mistaken or delusional, but sometimes people actually are.

We can't just disregard all of the claims, we also can't just credulously believe every claim, but they also are numerous enough -- and difficult enough to investigate -- that we also can't feasibly do a thorough investigation of each.

I suspect it's probably the case that most are crazy, but I'm not confident. Youtube, reddit, etc are where I get this impression from, but these sites optimize for views and therefore have a tendency to amplify the more sensational examples of anything.

As a survivor of e-stalking/harassment...

I can say that in my case there's a decent chance that the goal was to drive me to paranoia and/or some form of public display that would get me labeled as a kook.

Essentially, drive someone to the point they go full 'space lizard rant'

Not just a fear either. There are a couple of sites that do exactly this and target people explicitly with mental illness to watch them deteriorate for their own amusement. Stalking them, doxing them, making public archives of their entire lives, and so on. It's especially sadistic.

Cite?

I really don't want to give them any attention, but for the most notable example, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16244350

Note that there are many more such sites if you choose to go down that particular rabbit hole.