Am I the only one who thinks this has become an incredibly lazy and misused defence mechanism? Freedom of expression does not make you immune to the response. You can still share your opinions whether people like it or not. For evidence of endless, unrestricted opinion-sharing see Sam Newman's Twitter feed, any number of Andrew Bolt articles, or the fact that Israel Folau’s "Hell awaits you" post is still up on Instagram. Israel Folau arrives at the Fair Work Commission last Friday. Credit:Janie Barrett There are certain people I wish we could mute, but no one is putting tape over anyone's mouth or bleeping out the words they say in real time. Freedom of speech is alive and well, but you must be prepared for reciprocal expressions, which are more prevalent than ever. This leads us to the news that former AFL player Scott Cummings has been sacked by radio station 3AW over jokes he made about sexual assault on his Humpday podcast alongside former Collingwood star Dane Swan.

Cummings laughed while reading out urban dictionary definitions including "sneaking up behind a girl who is on all fours throwing up" and sexually assaulting her. He soon apologised, calling the comments "disrespectful and wrong", but his co-host and former Brownlow medallist Swan seems dumbfounded by the reception. The comments were gross, and like many I don’t find them humorous at all. Yet as Swan himself said earlier on a Sportsbet ad he featured in, "as Australians, we are born with the right to freedom of expression". Loading Technically, we don’t have freedom of speech in our constitution, as they do in the United States. But yes, we do have an "implied right to political communication" and, despite its limitations, we are largely free to express ourselves. It worries me when cases like Cummings' are drawn into the freedom-of-speech realm. I think it's pretty clear why he lost his job, and it’s not a restriction of free speech.

If you’re in business and you make a bad deal, you’ll lose your job. If you’re a football player and you play a bad game, you will be dropped. As a writer, if I write a piece that doesn't perform well, then I might not be given the opportunity to be published again. So if you’re a comedian, or attempting to be entertainers on a podcast, and you tell a joke that doesn’t resonate with the crowd, then you won't get the laughs you expect and you'll probably lose a platform to tell jokes. Audiences would throw tomatoes at poor performers at the Globe Theatre. My English teacher once told me that Shakespeare would actually be the one selling the tomatoes. Don't blame the audience if a joke or comment falls flat, and don't throw it into a free speech debate. Don't blame them for expressing their distaste for what you've said. If people respond negatively and you don’t like the negative feedback, then listen to what they are saying and try not to make the same mistake again. Alternatively, don't change and don't try to recruit them to your audience. Just don't complain about the consequences. Don’t blame the "PC culture" for ruining freedom of expression when you want to take away their opinions.

There is obviously a distinction concerning the defamation, harassment and slander of an individual based on race, gender or sexuality. To bully someone about who they are, rather than what they have said or done, is never an appropriate response, and online harassment is something that social media platforms have grossly failed to regulate. But if you wish to preserve freedom of expression then you cannot silence the responses you get and you can't run from the consequences either. Freedom of expression is alive and well. If Swan and Cummings are that desperate to continue making a podcast, then no one is stopping them from downloading Garageband on their iPhones and recording themselves for an hour, then Googling "how to upload a podcast" and following a few easy steps to have their opinions back up for everyone to hear. People are increasingly standing up against sexism, racism and things they don’t agree with. Like the Elizabethan days, the crowd is always ready with tomatoes and does not have to be held hostage to what you expect it to find funny. Brandon Jack is a writer and a former Sydney Swan.