I’m not sure who it was who once said: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”, but it’s incredible how fitting those words are at the moment. What makes everything even more tragicomical is the fact that education is practically entirely tax-subsidised in this country (excluding those €20 note packs that you always hear parents griping over on social media because they were expecting those for free too).

With all the things mine and your taxes pay for and the fact that everyone is legally-obliged to stay in school till they’re at least 16, you’d think that we would be living in a haven of knowledge. So, it remains a cause of quiet fascination to me how downright ignorant and silly some people manage to remain.

Around a couple of weeks ago, a now-infamous racist rant was made public and shared widely. The police rightfully and legally took the man who made the video in for questioning over incitement to racial hatred because well, that’s what it should have sounded like to anyone who heard the video. Yet, despite this, up and down the country, the Maltese are saying that he has a right to his opinion. Yes, apparently, saying truly horrific things, and as it turns out, grossly exaggerating a story to garner further sympathy, is according to the vast majority of the Maltese nothing more than an opinion.

There is a thin line between the freedom to speak and hate speech- Anna Marie Galea

Of course, it wasn’t enough to say this; these professors of the web even went as far as calling it freedom of speech. It’s a funny thing this freedom of speech in the hands of a population, especially when it’s only invoked to protect their opinions and not that of anyone else. They want to silence journalists who write about their party of choice’s corruption, but freedom of speech doesn’t matter if the person spewing out bile has the same opinion as them.

The problem was not that the man spoke out; no, that was not it. It was the way in which he spoke out which was the issue. It was the violence of the terms he used. There is a thin line between the freedom to speak and hate speech, and well, if you had actually taken full advantage of the free education given to you, you should have known that instead of just focussing on the superficial trappings of being free to sound off on every subject under the sun.

And while we are on the subject of lack of education and shoving tripe down people’s throats, I haven’t forgotten you Honourable Prime Minister. That populist stunt you pulled last week, presumably knowing full well the extent of xenophobia in this country, blaming illegal migrants for our spike in COVID-19 cases when they’ve been in isolation wasn’t cute.

Equally unsavoury was you telling us to enjoy our summers while our numbers continue to rise daily because you decided to open our doors to all and sundry and allow the most unnecessary of mass events to take place. And no, it’s hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that you appear to cart out Chris Fearne and Charmaine Gauci alone when there’s bad news afoot and save the plummy, positive photo opportunities for yourself, sans face mask since, quite strangely, those are only required in Brussels and not on home turf.

We will soon learn how truly expensive our ignorance is.