What Meghan Markle’s digital army has in common with trans activists

If Meghan Markle’s army of digital defenders didn’t exist, we’d have to make them up. Otherwise, the never-ending controversy over Harry & Meghan, the royal-couple-turned-Netflix-show, would not really be controversial — and all the tens of thousands of media articles, such as the one you are now reading, would be not just pointless but defunct. There would be nobody to argue with and nothing to argue about – apart from Brexit, obviously, and Matt Hancock. 

Markle’s digital army does exist, however. They are, like radical trans activists, a minority who manage to make a lot of noise – chiefly because most of us derive considerable satisfaction from the shared feelings of irritation that they generate.

Occasionally, the Gods of the Media Headings, the great outrage algorithms above the sky, will grant the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s supporters a win to keep us all interested.