Opinions may Vary . A genuine question about why Meghan and Harry seem to attract such differing views.

[BasiliskStare]

I post this more in hope than experience but I would be really interested in a proper discussion about those who are fans or supporters of them , those who aren't and indeed ( of which there are many ) , those who are indifferent.

So - I'll start. There was an interesting post on another thread which said M&H come over as David and Goliath , standing up against "the Institution" - my paraphrase.

No spitting , no fighting , mind the furniture 😂

What a lovely story @Weepixie . I'm a girl guide leader. GGUK created a royal wedding badge. Our girls learned all about Meghan's life, especially her 11 year old feminism activism in dish soap. We decorated crown shaped biscuits. And we had a competition, creating wedding dresses, tiaras and veils out of scraps of material/sheets/cardboard, and dressing them on mannequins complete with a Meghan head! Yeah, we really hated her 🙄

You evil racists you!! 😂😂
Seriously, that all sounds really lovely. So happy and positive. 🤗

Yes, I have heard this too. That statement effectively acted as an announcement that they were in a serious relationship. It was unprecedented (Catherine endured 10 years of actual, physical harassment and no such statement was made about her). William did, however, support his brother's statement, despite the claims he never defended Meghan.

@MadeInGrimsby it really was! Everyone was pleased for a positive, national occasion to celebrate. Well, maybe not the republicans! 😂

Honestly I wasn’t interested!
didn’t watch any of the royal weddings, didn’t follow the royals at all , just wasn’t on my radar, I was busy with life , it was only after the shit hit the fan that I started to see and it wasn’t a pleasant sight!

I used “narrative” for both Catherine and Charles (I said his was a PR masterclass) to mean the way events were managed and revealed to the public. The word does not mean untrue-it just describes a through story. The way KP did it inevitably led to a frenzy of speculation. That’s what silence does. The fact that the speculation ceased the second Catherine was forced into making a statement shows that could have happened much earlier. Yes, of course she shouldn’t have had to make the statement. But it was the only thing that was going to stop the speculation-when a much earlier press release would have calmed things down.

Interested hear my other “odious” comments, btw.

What I find fascinating about their supporters, is they have this compulsion to start posts with "I am not a fan". Which makes me suspect that they're actually a bit embarrassed about being a fan.
I'm very happy to proclaim I'm a huge fan of Malcolm Saville, because I think his books are wonderful, and I don't really care if you don't like him, or me because of that because I'd be proud to be associated with him in a small way. So why do they do that?
Do they think that it comes across as more authentic if they say they aren't a fan? That people will believe them if they aren't?
Because that's also saying that they don't think the fans are trustworthy in reporting. Back on the book analogy, I've tried books by other authors because I've seen them recommended by people who say they're fans. It makes me think that there must be something in the book if someone is such a devoted fan.

Also I find amusing is the number that also make out that they don't follow the stories but just happened to come across a thread in the RF board and felt compelled to join so they could comment.
I mean, I've been on MN around 18 years and I don't think I've ever ventured into some of the topics: eg dadsnet, doghouse, camping etc because the subject doesn't interest me, and I don't know much about. I can't imagine going into eg camping, opening a thread and having a compulsion to tell them don't go camping because it's muddy, full of insects and not fun at all. I mean, it's not hard to avoid doing that. I've never even had to try hard to avoid doing it.
It's a bit like the SM stories where someone just happens to be filming themselves doing a totally ordinary walk when this homeless dog comes up to them out of the blue, and they film themselves discovering their puppies and saving them. Does anyone really believe that they just happened across them?

And the other thing I've found interesting here is the ones that are clearly fans on other threads, will insult other posters/ other RF esp W&C have tried on this thread to appear neutral - but they haven't answered the question at all.

Sorry I beg to differ here !
you have never referred to Charles cancer as being a “ complicated narrative “
why pretend that you did?
and the reluctant disclosure of Catherine’s cancer ( which she wanted and was entitled to keep private) is not a story!
it’s a statement of fact , it doesn’t need a narrative “ complicated “ or not .

I am not a fan of the RF, think they're vastly entitled and unnecessary expense. I don't pretend to know them or think I can understand their motivations and feelings from the isolated snapshots they feed to the press, which are then shared with us peasants.

What I find fascinating about their supporters, is they have this compulsion to start posts with "I am not a fan". Which makes me suspect that they're actually a bit embarrassed about being a fan.

Sometimes I say that when I think the critsism of her are just not really fair because I'm not.

She gets a lot of flack and some of it is totally understandable some is just really petty. I don't think she a nice person - but I think she gets blamed for some shit that's just Harry fault - as we do live in a misogynistic society often most visible in our tabloid press.

I also don't hang out on these boards - I tend to foget them and then remember when they come up in active or trending - it's odd that that's considered odd by some more proflic posters here to point I must support Meghan and Harry.

I flit all over the boards - not dog topics as don't have one - cats kids news edcuation chat - AIBU - active can take me to some more unusal - I thought that was common way of using MN.

why don't you show me the posts where that was actually said ?
Dislike of clothes, cost etc ... that's an aside.

@RandyRedHumpback that sounds like great fun and I’m loving that we have guiding in common - I was a Brown Owl once upon a time.

One of the problems with stories which involve Kate (and William) is that they are the target of a large group of internet trolls who use social media, specifically Twitter to whip up that frenzy of negative or speculative stories about them, and the tabloid journalists watch out for those narratives and take them as easy stories - presenting as 'people are saying' so claiming it is already of public interest etc.

The tabloid stories feed back into the social media and the frenzy grows like a tornado picking up water.

Get the frenzy big enough and it hits the late night talk show rounds and then those comments played for laughs and clicks feeds back into the tabloids and back into social media and round again.

I've watched it happen several times now, specifically around stories about William and Kate. You can tell it's an organized attack because of the high number of accounts who all parrot several similar lines of copy.

One very noticeable incident was when W&K were on tour and had that unfortunate image taken of shaking hands with local children through a fence and it looked as though they were keeping the black children away from the white colonizers. It was poor planning by the organisers of the event, and bad that the team around W&K didn't clock how those pics were going to look. For security reasons they shouldn't have gone over to that fence at all - might have possibly raised a 'they couldn't be bothered to do a walkabout' but there wouldn't have been any photos.

However the media narritave was totally driven by the 'outrage' on Twitter which was managed and kept going by the SussexSquad lot - I watched it in real time it was fascinating to see how it worked.

When they did it with the Where's Kate meme again it was clear to see the same patterns.

Oh hello former leader! Hopefully you got out before they went doolally. I don't have a cool animal alter-ego, sadly.

Just wanted to add to your post @wordler : The "fence" was actually in a football stadium, and was the perimeter "cage" separating the football field from the crowd. These are still very common around the world (but not in the UK since Hillborough). Those kids were just spectators in a football crowd you would see at any football match there. If they were to shake hands with a player at a game on a Saturday, it would be through that fence. In fact, former Man U player, Marcus Rashford, was with W&C, and there are pictures of him shaking hands with those kids through the fence too. The way this was portrayed was utterly mendacious. Andrew Holness's behaviour towards W & C, and the situations he created to make them look bad and further his republican cause, was utterly lacking in class or statesmanship. The man still hasn't got round to holding a referendum on Jamaican independence.

The only places I saw any frenzied speculation were among conspiracy theorists who insisted she was already dead at William's hand and other appalling nonsense. The video statement did nothing to stop their insanity. It just led to more and more obsessive analysing the video to "prove" it was a deep fake because she was still already dead.

Catherine did nothing fundamentally different to Charles. But she was never going to win. Whatever she said would be picked over. If she gave more details she'd be accused of trying to get sympathy or taking attention away from Charles or still more speculation that her story didn't add up.

I said at the time and still do that her choice to not say anything until she wanted to was not bad PR or a mistake. She was in a lose more situation.

The kids were calling for W&C to come over and were delighted when they did. W&C shook hands around the fence and then went into the crowd with the kids. There is literally footage of all of this. And footage of other footballers and visitors to the club doing the exact same thing.

The Squad invented a story that Catherine was snubbed by a celebrity sitting next to her based on a selective editing of the interaction between the two women. The coordinated tweetstorm was then picked up by the media. The celebrity even wrote an op ed that she had not snubbed Catherine, she enjoyed speaking with Catherine, but that narrative has persisted to this day.

The Jamaican military asked W&C to do a parade review including a ride in a jeep echoing the late Queen and Prince Philip's visit. The SS created a tweetstorm that it was colonial and out of place. Jamaicans were offended as it was their idea and they were being told by outsiders that something was colonial when from the Jamaican perspective, it was not!

The Rota chose to amplify the coordinated social media attacks on W&C versus actually doing investigative journalism and reporting the truth of what was happening. Reading the Jamaican media vs the UK media one could be forgiven for thinking that each media was covering a different trip.

The Jamaica trip was a masterclass in gaslighting and Sussex Squad agenda setting. And the media abdicated their role of informing the public of the truth and simply chased views and clicks for money....truth be dammed!

Great post @My2cents1975 , thank you for the additional info.

Posting this video from the ever compelling and reliably researched Vintage read. Posted prior to Catherine's cancer diagnosis, she looked at the "Where's Kate" media storm and its origins - which were not the UK press, but a prominent US conspiracy theorist and US media from the Sussex friendly Penske group. It's an interesting watch.

Too late to edit, last sentence was meant to say "lose lose situation" not "lose more situation".

Wow - that is absolutely fascinating, my2cents. Thank you.

How utterly depressing that people can be so deceitful to make others look bad. I really feel fond an C - the way this tour was spun must be excruciating for them, and they can’t answer back.

I didn’t know the information you have posted but I do remember a Sussex fan on here accusing Catherine of deliberately wearing what she described as a ‘red slave mistress dress’ on that tour. When pressed by pps to show it or provide a link, she couldn’t. Other pps were able to establish that this was rubbish - no such dress ever existed.

There are some nasty people with a very dodgy agenda out there.

They also conveniently forget that H&M did similar to W&C in recreating an old Elizabeth and Philip image - in the form of a a colonial style pose on a balcony in Fiji

Peasants. Speak for yourself!

If the cap fits, though…🤣

A Vintage Read video about last Summer's MSM investigation of the Sussex Squad and their campaign of intimidation. Including the involvement of Christopher Bouzy, who appeared in the H&M Netflix documentary and produced a (now debunked) report for them supporting their aims for Twitter censorship; and Omid Scobie giving them pre publication access to Endgame.

And an unapologetic, multiply offending racist to boot.