Strangers step in after woman unleashes racist rant on bus

For all its benefits to society, public transport is a relative hotbed for racists to spew hate in a public setting.

In Adelaide, Australia, a woman is being sought by authorities after she was filmed yelling expletives at an Asian mother and her child on a bus on Saturday afternoon.

"They're not f*cking people, they're not f*cking Australian and she didn't pay for her f*cking ticket, dickhead," the woman shouted at passengers on camera.

"Literally they're f*cking invading our country, can't you see it, f*cking Chinese people f*cking everywhere," she added.

Two commuters, Jenny and Clive Starr, stepped in to defend the mother and her child. Clive Starr called the woman a "disgrace" -- something which she didn't take to kindly to.

"Disgrace? You're a disgrace. Letting these people into f*cking Australia, eh," she fired back.

The intervening couple told 9 News that they tried to tell the woman to stop.

"We thought if we got up and confronted her and blocked her off and just tell her 'enough,' just stop now, no more," Jenny Starr told the news outlet.

The intervening couple helped to comfort the victims after they got off the bus.

"They huddled together and assured each other that it was OK ... and I went up later and apologised and asked them if they were all right, and they were OK," Starr said.

It's the latest in a long run of racist incidents on public transport, which seem to be increasing in frequency. It's yet another thing that doesn't show any signs of abating in a "post-truth" world, and it's why, sometimes, riding the bus is the worst.