They say that WAS's will only surround themselves with people that either support their stance or at least not protest too much.

This seems correct, but who are they?

R 25 years
M 14 years
S11 & S13
Working on it alone since Oct 2014
M in trouble a lot earlier (~2 years)
Feb 2016. 1st R chat in a yr.
Next R chat Aug'17
Still together