Why have we become such polished haters? Why do we turn on people, we don't even know, as though they've harmed us personally?
And we're good at it.
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Q&A;: Lambie ignites fiery exchange
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie took on seemingly every other panellist during a heated discussion that ranged from childcare to sharia law. Vision: ABC TV
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who shared her opinion with us on Monday night's Q&A;, is a liar, a disgrace, a fraud, a hypocrite, and a misogynist who sucks off the taxpayer.
In less than 140 characters on Twitter, many labelled her terms we would not call our worst enemy. And yet, I bet, 100 per cent of them have not met her.
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Her crime was to provide an opinion; one that didn't match those of her accusers.
Now Yassmin might be right or wrong. And what she said might be true or false. That doesn't really matter anymore.
What matters is how we respond to anyone who dares to view something differently.
Islam. Immigration. AFL. A particular road rule. A scene outside a court. Same sex marriage. Becoming a republic. Workplace laws.
Any, or all, of those issues are able to elicit the most vicious commentary by sideline commentators who use social media as a weapon to put down whoever they can.
Politicians are used to it, and it's rare to find one who hasn't copped malicious, taunting comments that often extend beyond their public office to focus on their partners and children. One tells of finding notes in his children's school bag, directed at him.
This week, while shopping, I heard a supermarket assistant label Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk a "bitch". Why, her colleague asked.
Because she believed she'd been told by someone who had heard somewhere that Labor was to increase the hours of work without any increase in pay.
Journalists cop it too. Some weeks I'm a whore because of the opinion I've expressed on these pages. Other times I'm a slut. For those who relish throwing personal abuse, my motives are always malicious. After years with a pointy pen, it's usually water off a duck's back.
But now it's spread beyond those who regularly comment, and even beyond what is reasonable to comment about.
Grant Hackett's accusations against his brother unleashed a tsunami of abuse towards his sibling - a private citizen - without an iota of evidence.
Karl Stefanovic's children are told he's a scumbag for not introducing them to a new girlfriend, before their second date.
The teacher who had a go over our child's homework is an idiot. The corner store owner who closes up shop 10 minutes earlier is a wanker. And let's not even start on either big telecommunications company.
The issue is this. Bit by bit, we've let an insidious incivility infiltrate what we do. It's OK now for the US president to preach a politics of hate. We point out the camper van with the derogatory slogan plastered over its panels. We give the dude who cut us off the finger - and then a mouthful too, if he's in earshot.
We don't raise an eyebrow over celebrity survivor Tziporah Malkah calling Kris Smith an anti-Semite and a chauvinist. And we expect that "a-hole husband" we saw on television to be charged with his wife's murder.
And then we turn around and wonder why we are raising a generation of children whose manners need work?
God, or Allah, or whoever, help us all.
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