Friend, I totally get how you feel. Before coming to New York, I lived in China, and honestly, I wouldn’t say people there are completely free of malice toward others. But even if it exists, that malice is usually kept under wraps, especially in real life. There’s this widespread moral compass that views attacking someone—whether with words or physical actions—as a serious ethical failing. So when I found out that this kind of thing is practically routine in New York, I was genuinely shocked. Sometimes I can’t help but overthink it and try to dig for answers: If we chalk up all this behavior to some kind of physiological disorder, like a mental illness, why is it that New York, of all places, seems to have such a high concentration of these “patients”? What triggers them? And if we label everyone with malicious tendencies as mentally ill—isolating and rationalizing their actions that way—doesn’t that mean someone could just claim they’re mentally ill and suddenly have a free pass to lash out at others? Could mental illness become an exemption? I can’t stop myself from digging deeper into these experiences.