Whether or not such an action will succeed may be questionable, but "defamation" actions involving negative/misleading online reviews tend to get traction where they don't otherwise. For some reason, courts don't like business review websites being used to go after people personally when there is no actual business relationship.
You can't reasonably distinguish between a person who legitimately read a book via another source (library, bookstore, loan from a friend, etc.) and just posted a review on Amazon when they saw it listed there, and somebody maliciously posting negative reviews everywhere they possibly can. Traction or not, you'll never get anywhere
near the "preponderance of the evidence" threshold you'd need to score a win.
Fatrick's situation is different than the run-of-the-mill defamation action [even when considering the online review element] specifically because he's a public figure, though in a situation where someone is being accused of being a pedophile, it can be easier to prove actual malice; there's no way you can't actually have malicious intent when you're suggesting a person is a child molester/has molested children/has a propensity toward the same unless, at the very least, they've been charged with it - or you are a victim of the person/have other tangible, verifiable proof of guilt.
My Fatrick lore knowledge has lapsed a bit, but doesn't that allegation (of his pedophilia) actually have a bit of meat on its bones? I thought he'd at least made some very questionable comments (at best) or actually been accused of something (at worst). Truth is a defense against defamation claims.
There's also the herculean task of proving actual damages, and this dipshit has done so much damage to his own reputation and career it's damn near impossible to point to any single factor as the main contributing cause of his undoing. You don't get to point to someone calling you names and say they're the reason your shitty books aren't selling, especially if they already weren't selling prior to the name-calling. If you've been punching yourself in the face for an hour straight, you can't really blame the guy who slaps you across the face to get you to stop for the massive black eye you gave yourself.
I do understand your point -- calling someone a pedophile is potentially
very devastating and could well be actionable in a lot of circumstances -- but I think Fatrick might be one of the rare exceptions where his own absurd behavior practically indemnifies anyone mocking or insulting him.
They just refinanced in the past year. They have 0 equity in that house.
lol then he's absolutely fucked. What an amazing own-goal.