What exactly is "the Sussex Squad"?

[Prydddan]

I don't know whether this is too controversial a topic for such a thread to be allowed to stand. But I post in good faith on a topic I believe has a lot of social and political relevance.

Does the "Sussex Squad" actually exist? If so, how do you join? If not, do people ever identify as belonging to it?

If it exists, was it hijacked by SarahData and Bouzy or was it their creation? And, if so, to what extent?

Thanks in advance.

In answer to the OP, I think the Sussex Squad characteristics are to respond to criticism or questioning of H&M's actions by attacking the person criticising/questioning, rather than answering the points they made.

You are racist/jealous etc, why are you posting about people you don't care about. You are a royalist, forelick tugger. You read the tabloids and can't think for yourself. Etc

They also report, report, report to try to get posts they don't like deleted, while skirting very close to breaking guidlines. Use snark snd sarcasm to provoke a response they can then report as a 'personal attack'

Those are the tactics I see on SM

Tbh I don't understand WHY...

Do the tactics work?

Depends what their aim is I suppose....

Something else I don't understand

Perhaps getting someone they disagree with banned is a success?

But when it comes down to it, how does that benefit H&M? If their products are genuinely popular, they will sell. If not, they won't. SM can only go so far.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/26961997/sussex-squad-trolls-kate-middleton/

I know it’s the Sun….! But it’s a very interesting article about the tactics of the SS. How anyone would want this behaviour and bullying done in their name, I have no idea……

Thanks. I see that, too.
But I still don't get who's funding them/ writing the scripts/ setting the tactics.

with Amber heard it was rumoured to be PR teams and they then attract those who do it for fun. If a company is hired to up a person’s profile and on a commission basis it can be “ what you don’t know won’t hurt you.” The other probability more likely with Meghan is there is third party money to be made, Scobie and Bouzy, for example. It is in their best interest to keep the rivalry alive. Even those who ridicule and monetise Meghan gain money by the Sussex squad as they give them ammunition.

You don't need to be on twitter to find the Sussex Squad. There is a 'blog' Celebitchy, don't know who it is run by, anyone who has a critical comment about H&M or a positive comment about W&C are nicknamed 'derangers'. The comments on those blog posts are a gazillion times worse than anything you would read on the DM comments.

A few of the posters on here who used to twist posters comments, ridiculed posters who said they were mixed race or black and not towing the party line, who rephrased the most innocuous comments and scream racism and dog whistling eventually outed themselves as celebitchy followers, so it all finally made sense.

I suspect those were the ones who made MN admins really twitchy, because they were vociferous in their efforts to shut down any negative discussions about H&M.

I remember realising (once they admitted being SS) how they had manipulated a few genuine posters who really were Republicans and who had honest views about the RF. If you looked back you could see how they worked on those posters to join their attack on anyone who had anything negative to say about H&M, which had nothing to do with their Republican ideals really, but who ended up unwittingly sidetracked into supporting the SS ideals.

Having a “tribe” like the Sussex Squad active on social media and other forums essentially creates a false market. They give the impression that there is a huge global demand for absolutely everything the Sussexes produce.

In reality, however, the Sussex productions that have been massive successes (Oprah, Netflix documentary, Spare) have all been the ones that are focussed on gossip about the royal family. Interest in that topic clearly is huge and global. Productions focussed on a different topic (The Bench, Archetypes, Archewell) however have a much smaller market. Launching a retail business will be an interesting test as to whether they have broad commercial appeal outside of their successes to date, when they aren’t aligning themselves with the royal family.

I remember realising (once they admitted being SS) how they had manipulated a few genuine posters who really were Republicans and who had honest views about the RF. If you looked back you could see how they worked on those posters to join their attack on anyone who had anything negative to say about H&M, which had nothing to do with their Republican ideals really, but who ended up unwittingly sidetracked into supporting the SS ideals

That was what I found so confusing - I'd be lurking and reading and thinking 'But you're an avowed republican! why are you defending H&M and appear to be a supporter?' there was one for who intense dislike of William appeared to be the driver.

I have no idea why people with republican ideals and values would support the endeavours of H&M. Unless they feel that their monetising of the complaints and the curated victimhood somehow makes the RF look bad?
Strange, though.

They call everyone who they consider not one of them, derangers as messy has said above. It’s hard as a MNer knowing where that came from……

This is adult women, is it? certainly explains a few colleagues at exjob. Clearly some people never grow out of the playground.

the squad is not one entity and not all Harry and Meghan supporters are squad, so there could be multiple reasons, followers tend to become redundant when they can’t reply with “what she said”. Those who are in a fanbase mentality it maybe as simple as the most important audience. Bouzy and Wootton centred the arguments on Twitter and TikTok became more important with the where’s Kate. It makes sense for supporters to follow the bigger audience. Especially TikTok with money to be made.

I think there were a fair few who had got sucked in to the awful manufactured rumours about the Waleses and felt shame when they were demonstrated to be utterly false, so of course stopped posting

That would make sense, if the genuine fangirls doing it for fun realised they were acually amplifying the thoughts of a conspiracy-nut theorist whose behaviour was tipping into Wales-abuse and backed off for reasons of common decency following the cancer reveal.

That was what I found so confusing - I'd be lurking and reading and thinking 'But you're an avowed republican! why are you defending H&M and appear to be a supporter?'

This is a good point. I pointed out several times that I'm not on any team when it comes to royal bad behaviour. The majority are appalling in different ways in my view but there was so little balanced discussion to be had on H&M's bad behaviour and it got so downright nasty so quickly I just CBA to try.

Those threads were pretty dreadful and most of it seemed to be driven by names I didn't recognise.

I suppose any regulars who were sucked in could just name change and carry on?

If they have name-changed and carried on, they do not seem to have the persistence, numbers, or will to launch the derailing personal attacks and whatabouteries that plagued the RF board pre-Windsor Farm Shop.

Although I've seen a bit of that creeping back lately.

After Windsor Farm-shop, Elon Musk announced that he was cleaning up X and shut down many X accounts. Dan Wootton also made his statement. In addition, allegedly two investigations are going on where people claimed their houses were burned by SS members. SS is in the spotlight and the funders may have decided to back down for a bit.

Where can we read about the house fires? That’s terrifying.