AlterNet: The Strange, Obsessively Anti-Government Sovereign Citizen Movement Makes a Comeback

[marmar]

"Sovereign citizens" refuse to abide by any government laws, even mundane ones requiring drivers licenses. They refuse to pay taxes or get gun or construction permits. They protest court proceedings. According to Brent Johnson, a sovereign citizen and host of the "American Sovereign" radio show, being a sovereign citizens “means never having to ask those people who you have allowed to run your government for you, for permission to do anything.”

Sovereign citizens also believe that our Social Security numbers make us slaves to the government. “We have been inculcated to think that we are supposed to get a number, obey the rules and give a portion of what we earned to the IRS that gives it to the international bankers,” says Johnson. Their belief system and arguments explaining why they think so many laws and much of the government is illegitimate is complex and confusing to the point that even Johnson describes it as “literally living in a matrix world. What we have been taught about the government is so completely wrong.”

The sovereign citizens movement has seen a recent resurgence similar to its heyday in the 1990s -- no surprise, given the recession, increase in federal laws, and the right-wing rhetoric of shock jocks and Tea Party politicians. Since it’s not an organized movement, there are no reliable statistics. But sovereign citizens themselves say there is an increase of people visiting their Web sites, attending their lectures, and listening to their radio shows. Mark Pitcavage from the Anti-defamation League, who has been studying the movement for over 15 years, says he’s received more and more calls from law enforcement and others asking for advice on how to deal with sovereign citizens. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/148290/%27screw_with_their_faith_and_they_will_kill_you%27%3A_the_strange%2C_obsessively_anti-government_sovereign_citizen_movement_makes_a_comeback/

[geckosfeet]

1. On one hand I agree with them, on another I find them similar to the baggers

who scream about taxes and government intrusion while they suck off medicare and enjoy extensive public infrastructure and services payed for with taxes.

Their basic premise is, like so many things these days, based on an unorthodox interpretation of the 14th Amendment. They claim that when the nation was founded, citizens had prime authority and the government was set up to protect our God given "unalienable rights." But the 14th Amendment created a new hierarchy: God, citizens, government, and then former slaves. Over time, through specific wording used in laws, forms and court rulings, the government has managed to trick all citizens into subservience. Now, every time you sign or register with the federal government, be it a driver's license, Social Security number, tax form, or even something as simple a construction permit, you are entering a contractual and legal relationship with the government, according to the sovereign citizen philosophy.

Another example of citizen subservience: they argue that FDA drug laws use the phrase "man or other animals" which demotes people to the status of animals without inalienable rights. This, they argue, goes against the Bible, which differentiates man from beast, and thus, according to sovereign citizens, all drug laws represent a violation of religious freedom. There are endless examples, and sovereign citizens continually discover new ones.

Most outlandish is the conspiracy theory that in 1933, when we went off the gold standard, the government started using citizens as collateral, selling their future earnings against foreign debt. Now, apparently, there are two entities, a corporate shell that exists on paper (i.e. the straw man) and the flesh and blood person. When you are given a birth certificate and sign up for a Social Security number, unbeknownst to you, you are waiving your freedom and becoming a corporate entity on paper. The government uses your future earnings as collateral for foreign debt, in what is -- according to them -- a giant government Ponzi scheme.

When I asked Adask what draws people to this process, he says it’s usually desperation from losing a legal battle that strips them of a home, business or spouse, or puts them in jail. "You are taught to believe that this is the best legal system in the world, but all of a sudden you find out this is a racket," explains Adask, who was himself driven by a difficult divorce and custody battle. "You are so shocked and dismayed, you get beat up so bad, that you end up reading and studying the law, because you don’t want to go back there." His sovereignty seminars in Texas were almost a kind of group therapy session, he says, since being ripped off "makes you almost mentally ill. Most people in the sovereignty movement were the type that had tears in their eyes when they heard the national anthem. When they found it was a fraud, they were desperate to find something new to believe in. That also makes them very susceptible to being exploited."