If there ever was such a country, would people want to live there? And if they wouldn’t, doesn’t that just mean it would change?
I can’t see how some form of free speech absolutism would even function.
As for the size of the damages: in the US, weirdly, rich people pay more damages because I assume it’s also a way of making them stop committing the crime and not simply compensation for damage done.
It's a bit more complicated than that, but fundamentally, defamation involves a "false statement of fact". Weasel wording that would be understood by a "reasonable person" to imply facts can be defamatory even if the verbiage says "opinion", so it may require more careful language to stay on the safe side, but I can't think of any opinion that couldn't fundamentally be expressed at all.
I can’t see how some form of free speech absolutism would even function.
As for the size of the damages: in the US, weirdly, rich people pay more damages because I assume it’s also a way of making them stop committing the crime and not simply compensation for damage done.