In the US, people can use that tactic, although courts tend not to be idiots about people using it as a "get out of judgement free" card. That is, "JKR is a shitty, vile transphobe who is happily throwing cis women under the bus as long as it feels like she's hurting trans women" is a statement of opinion in a US court, whether you say "I believe" or not. Same with "Suella Braverman's a racist, xenophobic twit". Meanwhile "I believe the story that David Cameron fucked a dead pig on October 4th, at 2PM" is more wobbly, even with the "I believe", because there's an implication that I have receipts. Probably depends on the context, honestly; am I making allegations alongside my lawyer, or just talking on social media. (Since Cameron's a public figure he's almost impossible to defame in the US, but that's a different factor.)
I can say all those and I can be grateful that the US does this one thing pretty well.
(I'm not actually sure I can safely say all those things, TBH. Since I'm dual-national and more importantly I'm in the country frequently, it's probably not as safe as I want it to be, despite the SPEECH Act. Buy Imma gonna.)
disclaimer: IANAL
In the US, people can use that tactic, although courts tend not to be idiots about people using it as a "get out of judgement free" card. That is, "JKR is a shitty, vile transphobe who is happily throwing cis women under the bus as long as it feels like she's hurting trans women" is a statement of opinion in a US court, whether you say "I believe" or not. Same with "Suella Braverman's a racist, xenophobic twit". Meanwhile "I believe the story that David Cameron fucked a dead pig on October 4th, at 2PM" is more wobbly, even with the "I believe", because there's an implication that I have receipts. Probably depends on the context, honestly; am I making allegations alongside my lawyer, or just talking on social media. (Since Cameron's a public figure he's almost impossible to defame in the US, but that's a different factor.)
I can say all those and I can be grateful that the US does this one thing pretty well.
(I'm not actually sure I can safely say all those things, TBH. Since I'm dual-national and more importantly I'm in the country frequently, it's probably not as safe as I want it to be, despite the SPEECH Act. Buy Imma gonna.)