Maybe if you stop acting so hostile.....

I can say that Apple Daily has ruined the mental health of our generations in the last three decades.

For how many years, we were excited to read the news?

Hong Kong people used to be obsessed with money. The moment they opened their eyes in bed, they thought about money. How could I make more money today? How could I be wealthier than yesterday? The sole purpose of life was to make money, like a money machine. Unfortunately, this was the sad reality of Hong Kong people for most of the times.

Until 1995, Apple Daily was born.

Wow, it felt amazing to read Apple Daily.

For once in our life, making money was made a second priority. Hong Kong people actually found a better purpose in life: to read about others' problems through the lens of Apple Daily.

We felt elated to see the graphics of people jumping off a building. We felt excited to hear about the insider stories of celebrities. We felt fortunate to live in Hong Kong.

We were justified, reassured, and celebrated, thanks to Apple Daily, because it seemed like, everyone else had problems. Even the wealthy and the successful.

Making money made us feel good. But seeing others fall apart felt even more rewarding. Nothing beat the feeling of witnessing others' misfortunes and sufferings.

Through years of media brainwashing, we were almost brainwashed to think that"everyone has a hidden agenda".

We wanted to know how others wronged themselves, so that we felt justified that whatever we were experiencing, the hardship, the suffering, the pain, or the misfortune, was not so much of a big deal. There were people out there morally more wronged than us. We, after all, were not doing that bad.

This attitude of trying to dig out whatever individual's darkest secrets and hidden agenda infiltrated the business world, the financial world, the schools and basically every sector in our society.

When we saw a competitor who might threaten our well being or position, the first thing our brain reacted was: wait, what's his hidden agenda? what's his filthy past that got him there in the first place?

So we were wired to do a lot of hacking and interviewing his past colleagues and friends: what was his hidden agenda? Not only we would feel good about knowing the flaws and weaknesses of our competitor, we could also use this against him in his pursuit of success.

But what if he didn't have any hidden agenda? Maybe he was not that outstanding to start with to worth all your time and attention digging out his past.

But we became ceaseless anyway.

And then you realized whatever you found out about your imaginary competitor was fake news.

Not everyone was mentally sick like you.

Not everyone had a hidden agenda like you.

But what went wrong?

Wasn't this the secret tip to get to success in Hong Kong?

Wasn't the Apple Daily way of living the social norm of Hong Kong?

Urgh....maybe if you stop acting so hostile, you can actually get to know a person in a normal way. Like actually getting to know a person, not through gossips and fabricated fake news. Does anyone really know anyone ever at all nowadays?

Also, you are not that smart. You are not outsmarting everyone else.

You are just being brainwashed to think that what you want to know aligns with what the media wants you to know.

No matter how hard you try, you will only forever be fed what the media wants to feed you. And eventually you will start to think that all that junk news is all you need to know.

You are just another victim of the Apple Daily generation. You are not that special.