Yassmin Abdel-Magied taught us all a valuable lesson this week.
Free speech, to some of its advocates, only works if it supports bigotry, racism and sexism.
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Yassmin's Anzac statement 'idiotic'
ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied is labelled "un-Australian" and "insensitive" for using Anzac Day to highlight the plight of refugees. Sunrise
To offer a view, contrary to theirs, is to attract a tsunami of abuse, hatred and vitriol that makes you sick to read.
Ms Abdel-Magied did not attack our Anzacs. She did not suggest that those on Manus Island or Nauru, or in Syria and Palestine should take the place, in our thoughts, of our Anzacs.
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She simply asked, on a day when we commemorate those brave souls, that we also not forget others - those on Manus Island and Nauru, in Syria and Palestine.
It was a mistake. People were always going to read that as an attack on a day so, so important in the history and the psyche of our country.
So what did she do when her error was explained to her? She admitted it, deleted the post immediately from her Facebook account and apologised.
And for that, she's been labelled terms that made me feel ill. A "shit slag". Someone who should feel the violent wrath of a strong male Muslim colleague. She should "piss off" to her own land "of bombed out buildings". And so the drivel continued.
No doubt my email box will fill quickly too, simply because of a decision to support a 26-year-old who made a mistake.
But what about the irony here? Free speech isn't exactly free. To those who spent Wednesday attacking Abdel-Magied, it seems it is only free when it supports their side of the argument.
Our politicians led the assault, in a cheap bid to grab a few extra votes.
Like a school tuckshop queue on a Friday, they lined up to label her a disgrace, and her conduct reprehensible. Some demanded she be told to leave Australia and that the ABC's funding should be slashed as retribution against the part-time presenter.
If Abdel-Magied was out of line - and many people think she was - that makes those who spent Wednesday throwing nasty, racist, sexist and violent comments at her even worse.
Free speech is one thing, freedom to abuse is another and doesn't match any definition of Australian values.
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