Bending Tongues Like Bows

Language is a fragile thing. It carries memory, meaning, and moral weight, and when it breaks, it rarely breaks quietly. Two thousand years ago, Cicero warned that a republic does not collapse all at once. It hollows out first, word by word, until the language of virtue remains but the substance is gone. The buildings still stand. The speeches still sound familiar. But something essential has already been lost.

Today, we find ourselves in that same uneasy moment. Our political vocabulary has become a weapon. Labels replace arguments. Outrage substitutes for reason. When every opponent is called a Nazi, when every disagreement is treated as existential evil, persuasion dies and power takes its place. History tells us where that road leads, and it is never somewhere good.

In this episode of What the Frock, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod dig into the corruption of public language and why it matters far more than most people want to admit. Drawing on Cicero, the prophet Jeremiah, and the hard lessons of history, they ask a simple but dangerous question. What happens to a society when words stop meaning what they say?

This is not a partisan conversation. It is a moral one. A call for precision, courage, and restraint in a culture addicted to noise. Welcome to What the Frock.