Can you suggest ways to elaborate the caption of this visualization to extend its ethnographic message?

My mind is floating to paranoa. The paranoid style—a form of thinking often pushed to the margins—is part and parcel with the epistemology of the humanities and social sciences more generally. AND maybe of tireless researches like Wilma in the photo? Though some are institutionalized for questioning the truth as given, something which is clearly articulated in Jonathan Metzl’s “The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became A Black Disease,” others, such as university professors, build their careers off of this skepticism. What are the dynamics at play here? Racialized? Gendered? Nationalized? The paranoid style of thinking exists within different spectrums and exits around the world, but how are we—as a public, as a society, and as academics (aware these are not homogenous categories)—drawn toward paranoid modes of thought? I never thought of myself as a “conspiracy” theorist before, but the more I think about it, the more I think that is in some way what anthropologists are meant to practice: How is the “truth” in some ways even more mind blowing than the fiction? How do we figure out all of the moving parts? How do we take seriously the social implications/consequences of conspiracy theories in our field sites? In the archives? How do we give conspiracy theories and paranoia the in-depth analysis they deserve? Why did a paper trail end here? These questions aren’t looking for simple answers but are rather focused on what this investigation means for our larger political systems.

 It seems like “paranoa” might be a good lens to think through for this photo. How a paranoid mode of thinking can actually draw out the repetitions across this mass of documents. Draw out the toxic repetitions..