Neither. Based on everything you wrote, its a tactic against an enemy, which is you in this case. Trust me, its not the second thing, your enemy could be a rabid rapist who likes to dress up in his mother's high heels while singing Diana Ross tunes, yet if this is a war against you, you start to see the telltrue signs of war, one of those is mal-progranda or facetious proganda.
By facetious, I mean deliberately saying something about your enemy that is not true. Like your enemy is the cross dresser, but yet he says you are. In addition to randomly having humans read your mind, when telepathic technology has yet to be introduced, you have the issue of someone purposely lying about you.
Like see this bit right here:
Whenever I prayed to god in my head, they recoiled and showed outward disgust or fear.
Please. Look into some wars, some recent, some not. Humanity on this planet is without compassion when it comes to war.
I'm going through what your going through, and trust me, people saying 'mean' things about your thoughts is the LEAST of your worries.
Wait until they go from one lie to the next. Wait until they're right in front of you with their masks on, with a soul clearly stuck underneath them. Is it you? Is it your team? Watch them, see the kinds of reinforcement methods they have about themselves.
Another thing that might be kind of hard to chew, but is quite real, they have have your spirit eye or your power.
Try this one for a scenario, as sick as it is, you are a 34 year old male, I'm female, I'm setting this up as an example. Anyway, you live on a planet called Greatworld, but what you don't know about this planet is it has many secrets, some of them are extreme and wild beyond human comprehension. One of them is that your planet does not look quite the way it does in pictures, and this planet is actually called Raiders. Planet Greatworld is full of deception, treasures, lies, sex, and anything else you could think of.
Planet Greatworld is run in part by Ancient and Mythic Gods, and a very Human group of people, whom weild the power of Gods. There are actual Gods, yes as you will come to find out later, but in your case, this Human group of people is actually very important. This group is called The Secret Society of Hoarders for the Enslavement Benefit of The Rich and Powerful Mankind, or SSHBM for short.
A lot of Greatworld residents know about this, but keep it hidden for advancement in a religious hierarchy that is very important to them, for it is the only thing they know. It is the only system that provides them freedom and understanding in life and in death. Besides, what may be perceived as bad to one person, might be just and righteous to everyone else.
Every human born on planet Raiders gets a spiritual implant (Demon Angel Eye Nobody knows what it is really) installed in them from birth. This helps the human controllers control and monitor everything you do, most importantly, it literally gives them control over your soul, yet little people know this. Every once in a while, when someone dies on planet Greatworld, they go to a different planet entirely, sometimes, they even advance in all manners of Spirit Evolution. Sometimes a human can actually, after many years in the spiritual world, become a God. You don't know this, but the shadowy elite knows this.
One year, it begins. Everyone starts reacting to you negatively similar to a body of Christ infected with Lupus. The whole of planet Greatworld, including it's seedy spirit world, is against you.
Heres where it gets bizarre, you have a beard, and a penis, yet the people of Greatworld, whom had up until this point called you a dude, now call you a female. Its like a fun Satanic load of crackerjacks. Anyway, so you wait until this shit blows over, because theres way too many fucking lies for you to get the straight of it. You die, then go to a different planet entirely. You evolve in death and go on to become a spirit and protector of a world.
Yes, this is great, its your birthday, go love your world.
However a group that you have forgotten, whom has never forgotten you, knew. They knew and know. You see whenever a spirit goes on to another planet as you did, and do what you did, the SSBHM knows because of the implant. This gives them knowledge of other planets and allows them a window into a world, without actually being there.
While you are overseeing the nice, pretty, true world that is yours, the SSHBM is literally salivating at the mouths like hungry wolves. SURPRISE! They are just in your low orbit with a fleet of war spaceships that you never even saw on planet Greatworld. They are there for one word, and one word only RAID. Not only do they want your world's treasures, they want your essence as well. Quite sad. You are overtaken and de-deified by advanced humans, your eye/spirit given to someone else.
Another surprise, due to the warping of space, this RAID incident happens in the past. This is why people on planet Greatworld treat you like a piece of shit, because if you meet your enemy, know they're your enemy, and have already seen their doom, then whats the point of politeness? To the Victors go the spoils, so in their mind, you're just a minor inconvencience before getting to something really good. They don't give a shit about you. They stick to the script and they're military in their ways. In fact, if you were the person in this scenenario I wouldn't call it quits as much as I would just you know Akuna Matada that shit, because to be fair that memory cap on the way out will cancel any plans for opposition, even if you did believe such a far-fetched idea.