“The problem is that defamation can be used as a weapon to silence dissent.”
Then if you dissent, you should probably be careful not to defame a private citizen and leave yourself open to a lawsuit.
Read this thread carefully.
You do not have to specifically name an individual to defame them.
You may well have defamed someone during your life (even unintentionally) but you were such an unimportant and uninfluential person that they did not care.
However, defamation claims can be used as a weapon to silence political enemies—and the claimed pain and suffering of the alleged victims can always be used as an argument by the plaintiff.
Those with deep pockets have a big advantage in such legal proceedings.
Bottom line—rich oligarchs can use the legal process to silence anyone with proxy defamation claims.