Not a lawyer either, but studied a little law in school. Pretty sure the only difference being a public figure or not makes in a libel case is that if you are a public official, you have to prove some factual statement was not only false, but that the publisher knew it was false and published it anyway.
Public figure or not, I don’t think you can win a libel case unless you prove a statement was false. Opinions cannot be proven false.
If anyone has extra info on this topic I’d love to hear it.
