Ariela wrote:
For as long as I can remember I've been paranoid that people are deliberately trying to screw me.
This is generally not a task most people care to engage in.
Most things most people want, they can't get from you because you don't have whatever it is, and even if they could get it from you somehow, it's usually much easier for them to get it another way that does not involve you.
Screwing someone over comes with great risk of the screwer-overer incurring emotional damage or social damage, provided they are not a sociopath. The average person is instilled with a degree of empathy and altruism, a conscience that can wrack them with guilt, and they hurt themselves when they hurt another person. This is because humans depend on other humans for survival, or did at one point, and screwing someone over was a good way to alienate yourself from the group you needed to support you.
You are not that interesting: Meaning most people have more important things to focus their time, attention and resources on. Screwing you over is just not a high priority.
That's not to say there aren't people who will screw you over, there are. Even some relatively average people will screw someone over in the right circumstances, but generally most people you encounter have no desire to screw you over for relatively mundane things.