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Earlier that day on the way from Udon Thani to Nong Khai, when we could hardly get any mobile phone signal, we still could receive the D-station broadcast in our van. What we heard was more than saddening, it was unnerving.

The speaker was referring to the prime minister as "It". He called the holder of the highest office of the administration all kinds of names, including derogatory and lewd terms such as "Mother Lode of all Evil" and much worse. There was no logic in making these accusations, no room for truth, and absolutely no respect for the rule of law. As a society, how have we descended into this squat of hatred, lies, falsehood, fabrication and distortion?

We know the tenure of our current prime minister is not flawless, and he has deservedly drawn strong criticism on certain issues from many sectors in our society. His management style and judgement have been called into question. He can be aloof, unyielding, and at times seems out of sync with the political reality of the day. But one thing we cannot say about the prime minister is that he is a fiend and a villain; nor is he the cause of all the bad things that are happening in our lives and our polity. He may not get it right every time when it comes to his handling of the people and their welfare, but it is a fabrication to accuse him of trying to hurt less well-off people, who are the target group of the reds.

And he cannot be accused of personally taking bribes or kickbacks, which is a growing trend and alarmingly acceptable in our society. Do people realise how much money the nation saves with a premier like this one? Everyday, we and future generations are being robbed blind by clear-eyed bandits, as we watch helplessly.

The seeds of hatred and rage that are being sown every day, for selfish reasons and personal gain, have become poisonous algae in our well. How long will they be allowed to continue to spread unhindered? What will it take to clean them up, before it's too late to reverse? Are we destined for a tragedy beyond the unthinkable?

If we want an illustration of how extreme collective, senseless, fact-free hatred was unleashed, look to the United States in the 1960s.

In the book "The Death of a President", author William Manchester described the atmosphere in Dallas, Texas during the third year of President Kennedy's administration as a kind of mad fever, a "nut country" in Kennedy's own words. Jewish stores were smeared with swastikas; radical right polemics were distributed in public schools; a wanted poster with President John F Kennedy's face was circulated for the crime of "turning the sovereignty of the US over to the communist-controlled United Nations". A retired major general hung the American flag upside down, disdainfully described it as "the Democrat flag"; the most important newspaper in the city ran a story that the president had made a secret deal with the Communist Party. Kennedy's name was booed in classrooms.

Given this air of hatred and groundless fabrication that was firmly rooted in the psyche of the people, it was not shocking that when the news broke of the assassination of the president, fourth grade students in a wealthy Dallas suburb burst into applause.

And with such hollow violence, American innocence forever vanished.

The question we must ask ourselves is: Do we want to go there?

Freedom of expression is one thing; fabrication, innuendo, lies, falsehood, distortion are another. The former must be promoted and upheld, the latter checked. There are laws that prohibit fabrication and defamation, and they came to pass for a good reason. Such laws must be observed and enforced for the public's sake, before we drown in a sea of vicious deceit and hatred.

The red shirts did not invent the type of swashbuckling absurd theatre like the one seen in Udon Thani this past weekend, nor were they the first to exploit public trust and gullibility and run with it. The yellow shirts, politicians, and public and non-public figures are guilty of similar misdeeds. But society can turn a blind eye and do nothing only for so long, thinking that these are simply political fringes, hoping erroneously that they will eventually run their course and disappear. Ours is a society with the rule of law, and we are all one and the same. If a marriage is destroyed by one unspoken word at a time, a nation is ripped apart with every single utterance of fact-free venom, devoid of due respect for law, decency and civility.

It dulls the intellect, inebriates the mind, discombobulates the conscience. Soon we will forget we are brothers and sisters, and one nation that deserves better.