In a House committee room meant to examine foreign influence on American political life, the ancient tension between open discourse and covert subversion played out in vivid miniature — activists in foreign-government insignia were removed from a hearing, while lawmakers pressed a deeper question: when a genuine belief is amplified by foreign money, where does authentic speech end and manipulation begin? At the center of the inquiry is a $285 million web of nonprofits allegedly tied to an American entrepreneur living in Shanghai, now under grand jury scrutiny. The episode reminds us that democ