I’ve spent the last few hours reading comments left by listeners on a certain ‘squad’s’ podcast episodes.

I think the most troubling trend I’m seeing is this idea of Harry and Meghan being regarded as martyrs and saints.

When in fact they’re just as human as anybody else.

By propping them up as saints, everyone else who has, or is seemed to have, wronged them are referred to as ‘evil’, ‘demons’, ‘devils’ and ‘vipers.’

And one can be forgiven for thinking that this sort of language begins to sound very religious in nature.

I do wonder if people from this squad believe they’re fighting a holy war — like the crusades of medieval times — where they believe they must beat everyone into submission by ensuring everyone sees the world as they do, in stark shades of black and white.

The fact is that this tension between the Sussexes and the royal family is so much more complex and nuanced than ‘one side is jealous of the other and wants to off them’.

This is not a biblical story about treacherous vipers and virtuous sons of god.

This is a flawed family.

I’m really quite tired of seeing this melodrama play out amongst extremist fans from either side.

There’s conspiracy theories about one person wanting to murder another, or jealous in-laws wanting to tarnish reputations of others, or conspiracies about who controls the press.

It all sounds like an unimaginative plot of a medieval novel.

Often the sources of these conspiracies come from equally unimaginative — but exponentially more hateful and bitter — people who profit off spreading unfounded lies about the people they hate.

Anyway, before you go around believing these ridiculous conspiracy theories and dodgy narratives about people, consider who is feeding you this information and why they’re doing so.

Oftentimes, they’re benefiting greatly from the spread of misinformation.

And finally, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Harry and Meghan are not martyrs or saints.

By propping them up on this unrealistic pedestal, people are only setting themselves up for disappointment when it emerges that they are in fact human.

I don’t know when it became a thing for people to think of those they ‘stan’ as perfect people, because it sounds bizarre to me, and it’s probably why there’s so much hate floating around on social media.

I initially wanted to read these comments and listen to the podcast because I wanted to understand what it was that made the listeners and followers tick. And also to see if I could confront any biases I have about this ‘squad’.

Unfortunately I came away from it disappointed.

Nonetheless, I intend on doing the same thing with ‘Megxit’ podcasts in the near future.

I do wonder if similar trends will appear, as I’ve always believed these two ‘camps’ are different sides of the same coin.

After reading a number of articles and listening to several podcasts from the account, I think that what the SS needs is to take a long hard look at who they’re choosing to represent them.

I know there are Sussex fans who are wonderful and don’t engage in hate at all, but it’s interesting to note that these people are also hesitant to associate themselves with the squad.

I think it’s time for people of said squad to question why that is the case.

And as an outsider looking in, it isn’t hard to see why.

Unfortunately, those who are the most hateful, bitter, and spread the most misinformation and conspiracy theories are the loudest — and it it those who give the rest of the squad a bad name.

What’s most disappointing is that none of the more ‘moderate’ members are courageous enough to denounce this sort of behaviour, even if it’s to the detriment of the community as a whole.

As Meghan said, to be complacent is to be complicit.

And though you may not be spreading hateful content or misinformation, your silence is deafening.

tldr; don’t spread misinformation, don’t prop people up as martyrs and saints, and don’t stand with people who are hateful.

Just one last note: I think certain initiatives of the Sussex Squad are amazing, but it’s hard to support the great things they do when many of its leaders are also amongst the most hateful I’ve seen on Twitter.