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(Image by FEMA/Bill Koplitz via Wikimedia Commons) Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. The Founding Fathers of the United States felt that their experiment in self-government would not succeed if the citizens were not free to express themselves, to exchange ideas, and to criticize the politicians they elected. They therefore enshrined the principle of free speech in the First Amendment , which states that: " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. " In recent years, however, the right has been using the free speech argument for a different purpose: to gain exposure and conquer public space at the expense of their political opponents. The mastery of the rhetorical tactic of moral equivalence has ...

Taiwan may ban the public display of the Five-star Red Flag of the People's Republic of China  (PRC). In recent months a number of Taiwanese organizations such as the Taiwan Society (台灣社),  the Taiwan Society North (台灣北社), and the Taiwan Constitutional Society (台灣憲法協會), have called on the Taiwanese government to outlaw the public display of the PRC flag on grounds of national security. Embed from Getty Images China views Taiwan as part of its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to achieve "reunification." Beijing has urged the Taiwanese government to acknowledge the so-called " 1992 consensus ," yet Taipei has refused to yield to pressure from the Communist regime. In October 2017 a petition to ban the public display of the Chinese flag garnered over 7,000 signatures, surpassing the 5,000 signature threshold that requires Taiwan's Ministry of Justice to issue a response. The petition requested that the Criminal Code b...