This description of conditions during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) by Thucydides seems eerily apt for the political scene these days.
"Revolution thus ran its course from city to city, and the places where it arrived at last, from
having heard what had been done before, carried to a still greater excess the refinement of their
inventions, as manifested in the cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals.
Words had to change their ordinary meanings and to take those which were now given them. Reckless
audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal supporter; prudent hesitation, specious
cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question
incapacity to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting a
justifiable means of self defense. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his
opponent a man to he suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a
still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be
afraid of your adversaries" (3.82.3-5).
But probably we would assign the roles to different actors. The reference to language control screams PC, but who gets to play "Reckless Audacity" in your version?