Kanye West's hospitalisation has sparked an incredibly chilling public response.

It’s been mere hours since news of rapper Kanye West’s hospitalisation broke, yet the public’s response has already proven to be predictably ugly.

“Predictably”, of course, because it was only months ago that we saw similar vitriol spat at the 39-year-old’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, after she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris hotel room on October 3.

It’s a sad reality that the noise of Kanye’s mental health battle – which has played out in the public eye with a series of confused, rambling diatribes – is already drowned out by a torrent of directionless hate.

What’s worse is that many seem to find unreserved glee in the Kardashian Wests’ misfortune. Again.

When Mamamia shared the news of the father-of-two being led to a Los Angeles hospital in handcuffs for a psychiatric evaluation to our Facebook page, the overwhelming majority of comments were troubling.

The very first to be published read, "there's no cure for being a jerk". Moments after: "Finally, someone hospitalised his crazy ass."

A quick glance produced equally disturbing variations of the same hateful sentiment:

"Did he finally trip over his ego?"

"[This] just brightened my day considerably."

"Hope they have a cure for narcissism."

"Hope karma takes his ass out."

Of course, those are just a handful from our own Facebook. A broader search provides endless cruel memes and gifs - which we will not share here.

As it stands, we know very little about the situation that led to Kanye being medically treated for "his own health and safety". What we do know is that he's the father of a little girl, North, and her tiny brother, Saint. We know that he is a husband. And we know that he is very unwell.

We know that someone who is in a good place does not cancel the rest of their highly lucrative tour - amassing 21 shows - on the spot.

What you think of Kanye West is irrelevant. You needn't like his personality to show compassion or, at the very least, keep your inner hatred from spilling like thick tar across news feeds.

If you're happy that Kanye West is unwell, that says a lot about you - and nobody else.