I remember many, many years ago first hearing about this "Did you know that you don't have to pay income taxes if you just do ..." thing, way before "being completely disconnected from reality" was an acceptable political position.
"Huh," I thought, "I should look into that, see what that's about."
Fifteen minutes later: "Oh, it's just looney bullshit."
It dates back a long time, and for some reason has ties to both white supremacy and Moorish black people. I guess any loony fringe groups will pick up stuff like this.
One of the biggest pieces of shit I ever dated was into The Secret. His mom sold luxury real estate and basically let him be a fucking bum living on her money but he really believed that he was manifesting good things by wishing super hard for them. Although I guess you could say he manifested his mom buying him a house by being such a loser that she figured it was the only way she’d ever get him out of her guest room.
He was also into church. No surprise, in retrospect.
It’s a book that came out maybe 15? years ago that was basically like, “all you have to do get all the things you want is wish for them real hard and you’ll attract them to you.” Really stupid stuff but people who want good things without having to put in any work to get them bought it in droves. The idea of setting goals and having positive thoughts is great, not knocking that, it’s just that this dumbass book stops there. It really appeals to the “born on 3rd base, think they hit a home run” crowd because it lets them believe they “earned” their success.
Blows my mind how people can think they can just claim to be immune from laws and government yet be free to use the roads they avoided taxes to pay for.
They do! Freedom of movement is guaranteed in the constitution (article 4). OP is free to walk as far as they like; they can even ride a bicycle without a license!
Operating a motor vehicle is another matter, but then, SovCits are not strong on critical thinking skills as a rule.
If the guy deems himself to be a sovereign citizen, not subject to the laws of the state, why is he even bothering to make a fake license plate for the car? By doing so he’s just abiding by a requirement of a system he’s claiming to not be bounded by? (In a second-grader with a crayon and paper kind of way).
The beliefs of sovereign citizens are to law what magic is to science. Both believe that if you do the correct rituals and spells, you can ignore the laws of the land or the laws of nature, respectively.
I’m not sure what is meant by “only subject to contacts” (I think maybe they meant contracts?) but if he doesn’t think he needs a plate or license from the state, why would he acquiesce to police or the court? Surely by his logic they have no authority over him?
Sovereign Citizens are basically a cargo cult. They think that finding the right legalese will work like a magic spell. If they can find the right combination of words, they’ll get the outcome they desire.
The “only subject to contracts” thing is basically their belief that they are only bound by contracts they’ve agreed to, not things like the laws of the place they currently are. Hence doing something crazy like making a fake license plate and thinking that ‘counts’ because he’s “issuing his own license” without the need to do silly things like take a driving test to use public roads.
They think that finding the right legalese will work like a magic spell. If they can find the right combination of words, they’ll get the outcome they desire.
I mean, that is basically how the law works if you’re rich. Which sovereign citizens tend not to be
This is my major concern with a lot of the crazies out there. SovCit, Flat Earth, QAnon…their kids will ultimately be the ones that suffer the most.
Seeing how easily my kids are influenced by the various things around the place, these peoples kids will be absorbing the crap and it will be stuck in their heads on a fundamental level, much like religion.
The sovcit thing is really big, courts see it extremely regularly, and it’s become a standard view in prisons for, uh, reasons. So people convicted with video evidence of them doing it want to represent themselves.
I listened to a motions hearing where the defendant spent almost 20 minutes asking the judge “by what authority are you allowed to call me [his name]”. (The question the judge asked was “are you [guy’s name]”) and he would go into his sovcit loop until the judge was just done and was ready to send him back to prison. It was very boring insanity. It’s also not unrelated to why Trump is popular with men in prison.
He’s doing it wrong. I knew a Silicon valley weirdo who wasn’t sovereign citizen but never had a license. When he got pulled over, the police could only make him get out of the car and not drive. It wasn’t an arrestable offense because he never had a license as compared to driving with a suspended license. Being rich meant the fines were an annoyance, not a real problem.
Going through so much trouble to not have a license… Wow.
I had to look it up to see if you can buy a car without a driver’s license… It looks like depending on your jurisdiction, you can buy a car but you must have auto insurance. And you can purchase car insurance without a driver’s license. TIL.
Do they use different terms for the coverage in different states?
In the places I’ve lived, you have to have what’s called liability insurance at a minimum, and that’s the one that covers other people’s property but not your own.
Around here, collision coverage is to reimburse you for damage to your own car/property in the event of an accident (collision with another vehicle), and comprehensive coverage is to handle some of the other non-collision damage (like from hail).
Massachusetts requires insurance to register a car: there’s like half a dozen itemized minimum coverages
It was a real hassle a couple decades ago when they combined license, registration, and insurance requirements, while also no longer sending reminders. A lapse in one meant the rest were dropped and made it that much harder to fix. For example drivers license expires every four years, but without a reminder, you may forget. But an expired license may discontinue your insurance, so now you’re driving without coverage for a month until that gets sent out. Now your registration may also be canceled because of lack of insurance, so you have to renew all three and in the right order
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