Sometime in the 2010s, baseball was eclipsed as the national pastime. If you think it was replaced by the NFL, you’re wrong. It was replaced by social media psychodrama. It was replaced by voyeurism and citizen “journalism.” It was replaced by defamation.

Defamation is the national pastime. Tattle-telling on social media is the national pastime. Catfighting with strangers over the internet is the national pastime, and everyone’s living in glass houses.

I am a defamation attorney. Defamation law is a unique little area of practice. Although it’s largely a plaintiffs’-side practice (which would normally be considered left-liberal) defamation law is somewhat reactionary, because 100% of liars believe they have an inalienable civil and human right to ruin other people by lying.

Defamation law is also reactionary because I represent clients who can afford to hire counsel to vindicate their reputations, against opponents who can afford to talk shit. And we all know talk is cheap.

Indeed, the power to defame is the only power some people have, and nowadays, otherwise powerless people have more power to defame than ever before. Thus, very often, my opponent is the little guy. In an era of mob rule, the little guy is the biggest tyrant in the world. There is a tweet about this:

Liberals were out of control repressing speech during the 2010s, primarily by doxxing and de-platforming right-wingers online. This tendency reached its nadir with the prosecution of Douglass Mackay by the Biden administration. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the shoe was on the other foot for awhile, and liberals were predictably howling.

What does that tell you? Of course, We The People want freedom of speech. Everyone is a free speech purist in public. But when the mob comes howling for you, what you’re going to find is that you’d fight to the death for their freedom to shut the fuck up.

This can be understood without any ideological fingerpointing. It’s not just that people are hypocrites. That has always been true. But the tongue holds the power of life and death, and being chronically online is killing us. The rancor of social media psychodrama is killing us. Living in glass houses is killing us.

Here, for example, is a very famous tweet you may recognize:

This famous tweet expresses what is, today, a very conservative sentiment. I used to believe it. I still want to believe it. I would even venture so far as to say that in 2012, it was true, and today it isn’t. In 2026, is it even possible to “just walk away from the screen”? Of course not. When you wake up one morning to a defamatory Instagram post gone viral and targeted at you, or your spouse, or your kid, or your business, that shit is absolutely horrifying.

It is in that moment that people come to me: a defamation lawyer.

Funny story: the domain name of this site—aaroncress.com—was created by a person who once published a website about me for the very deliberate purpose of ruining my reputation, my livelihood, and my sanity with lies. For a few months it was a smashing success, until a court determined that this person was illegally cyberstalking me, and issued an injunction. After that, the domain name became available, and I felt the need to purchase it. But it all worked out because I needed a place to blog.

The point is that I know (all too well) what my clients are going through.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against freedom of speech. On the contrary—I’m against unprotected speech. As Justice Kagan said during her confirmation hearing, “Reputational harm is real harm, and the legal system should not pretend that it is not.”

If you have a defamation, doxxing, cyber-stalking, or First Amendment matter in Washington, New Mexico, or Texas, please visit my law practice at latenightlaw.com.

This blog post is commentary and is not legal advice for your individual situation. All text content © Aaron Cress 2025-2026.