Is disinformation protected by the 1st Amendment?

[UltraBudgie]

Should a ridiculous statement like "Haitians migrants eat dogs and cats" be allowed without scrutiny?

They're not Vietnamese. Its a different palette.

Zing! If you don't love cats and dogs, you just haven't found the proper recipe yet.

And misinformation is only indierectly threatening when gone uncontested.

There is the argument that it saturates the debate. Sucks the oxygen out of the room so to speak. Makes something that would be clearcut appear to be a divisive issue, a matter of opinion. People put it in the mental box of "well let's just wait and see that's contentious right now".

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)

The question is whether a liar can protect the people from other liars. The governments use disinformation too and it's all good if the lie serves their agenda. So the whole point is not the fight for truth as much as combating a hostile propaganda.

The "fight fire with fire" approach. Problem is, when you fight mud with mud, everyone ends up filthy. You can't burn the village to save it.