WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 Imagine you're a police officer, right? OK. You 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.099 pull someone over for a broken taillight, just 00:00:06.099 --> 00:00:08.599 a completely routine traffic stop. You walk up 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.259 to the window, ask for a license and registration. 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:14.099 Yeah, the usual drill. Exactly. But instead of 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:16.820 handing over a card, the driver just stares you 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:19.940 dead in the eye. Oh, boy. Yeah. And they slide 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:24.280 you this dense stack of documents. And it's covered 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:28.379 in unusual punctuation and literally red thumbprints. 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:31.539 And they tell you that because the United States 00:00:31.539 --> 00:00:34.399 government was secretly replaced by a corporation 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:38.460 in 1871, they are not actually driving. They 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.000 are merely traveling in a conveyance. And your 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.719 laws, well, they just don't apply to them. It's 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:47.600 a scenario that... usually ends with shattered 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.340 glass, honestly. You get a highly confused law 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:52.719 enforcement officer, and the driver ends up being 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:54.579 pulled from the vehicle. It sounds like a bizarre 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:56.899 prank, right? Or like a scene from some strange 00:00:56.899 --> 00:00:59.520 indie movie. Yeah, totally. But it is very real, 00:00:59.619 --> 00:01:02.240 and it is happening every single day. So welcome 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.599 to the deep dive. Glad to be here. Our mission 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.879 for today's conversation is to take this massive, 00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:11.239 comprehensive Wikipedia article we have as our 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:14.819 source material and use it to unpack the bizarre, 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:18.040 fascinating, and honestly sometimes incredibly 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.840 dangerous world of the sovereign citizen movement. 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:24.269 Yeah, and whether you are... you know, a law 00:01:24.269 --> 00:01:26.390 student or maybe just someone who has stumbled 00:01:26.390 --> 00:01:29.430 across these wild traffic stop videos online. 00:01:29.609 --> 00:01:31.590 They are everywhere on YouTube. They really are. 00:01:31.769 --> 00:01:33.650 Or even if you're just a person who's insanely 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:37.140 curious about human psychology. you are going 00:01:37.140 --> 00:01:38.640 to want to pay attention to this. Definitely. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:40.420 Because understanding this movement offers a 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:43.400 real master class in how misinformation spreads. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.959 It shows how a very specific kind of magical 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:48.859 thinking takes root and how desperate people 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.480 try to outsmart incredibly complex systems. Okay, 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.420 let's unpack this. We need to start with the 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:56.140 foundational worldview. Right. Because to a sovereign 00:01:56.140 --> 00:01:58.319 citizen or a soft sit, as they're sometimes called, 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:00.939 the reality you and I are living in is basically 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:03.439 a massive corporate illusion. Yeah, that's the 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.840 core of it. So how does someone even even arrive 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.620 at the conclusion that the government doesn't 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.120 actually exist? Well, they get there by pointing 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:13.580 to very specific, heavily misinterpreted historical 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:17.000 milestones. OK. The core belief across the sovereign 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:19.919 citizen movement is that the legitimate government, 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.280 originally in the US, we'll see how this adapts 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.360 globally later, was secretly overthrown. Overthrown 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:29.759 and replaced by like a business. Exactly. replaced 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:33.180 by a literal for -profit corporation. And according 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:35.740 to our sources, they trace this back to the District 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:39.560 of Columbia Organic Act of 1871. Right, the 1871 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:43.400 Act. What actually happened in 1871 and what 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:46.419 do they think happened? So in reality, the Act 00:02:46.419 --> 00:02:49.479 of 1871 was just a piece of legislation that 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:51.659 reorganized the local municipal government of 00:02:51.659 --> 00:02:53.639 Washington, D .C. That's it. That's literally 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:56.159 it. It just created a single municipal corporation 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:58.639 to run the city's day -to -day affairs. OK, makes 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:00.780 sense for a city. Right. But sovereign citizens 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:03.580 zero in on the legal phrase municipal corporation 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:06.319 and take it entirely out of context. Ah, I see. 00:03:06.539 --> 00:03:09.439 To them, this was the exact moment a shadow entity 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.000 incorporated the entire United States as a business. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.199 Yeah. They believe everything since then. Every 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:18.460 law passed, every single court established. is 00:03:18.460 --> 00:03:20.840 just corporate policy. It's not legitimate law 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.000 to them. So they see the government as basically 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.219 a giant Walmart with an army. Yeah, that's a 00:03:27.219 --> 00:03:29.139 great way to put it. But the conspiracy theory 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:32.419 gets even deeper in 1933. It does. That's the 00:03:32.419 --> 00:03:35.520 second major pillar. Yeah. In 1933, the U .S. 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.219 abandoned the gold standard. Sovereign citizens 00:03:38.219 --> 00:03:40.460 believed that without gold to back the currency, 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.620 this bankrupt corporate government had to find 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:46.080 new collateral to borrow money against foreign 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:48.340 debt. And the collateral they supposedly chode 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:52.379 was? The citizens. Us. Wow. Which leads us into 00:03:52.379 --> 00:03:55.819 what might be the wildest part of the entire 00:03:55.819 --> 00:03:58.039 ideology. The straw man theory. Yes, the straw 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:00.219 man theory. If the government is using you as 00:04:00.219 --> 00:04:02.580 collateral, the theory goes that every single 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:05.379 person based has two distinct identities. Right. 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:07.680 First, there is the flesh and blood living breathing 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.680 you. The real human. Exactly. And second, there 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.759 is the straw man, which is the secret corporate 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:16.579 shell entity created by the government the exact 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:19.120 moment you are born. Tied right to your paperwork. 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:21.759 Yeah, permanently linked to your birth certificate 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.660 and your social security number. And because 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:28.310 you, the living person, are the collateral for 00:04:28.310 --> 00:04:31.709 this corporate shell. The ideology claims there 00:04:31.709 --> 00:04:35.170 is a secret treasury bank account tied to your 00:04:35.170 --> 00:04:39.009 specific straw man. Holding money. Holding vast 00:04:39.009 --> 00:04:41.910 sums of money. We're talking millions of dollars 00:04:41.910 --> 00:04:45.649 per person. That is wild. It is, and sovereign 00:04:45.649 --> 00:04:48.389 citizens think you can actually unlock this secret 00:04:48.389 --> 00:04:51.649 money through these incredibly convoluted bureaucratic 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:53.939 schemes. Right, the source material calls it 00:04:53.939 --> 00:04:58.199 redemption or A4V. Yes, A4V, which stands for 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:00.560 Accepted for Value. It honestly sounds exactly 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:02.819 like an alternate reality video game. It really 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:04.560 does. Or like, you know, the Matrix, where if 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.540 you just learn the secret code, you can hack 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:09.220 the simulation and get unlimited resources. Yeah, 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:11.779 plug into the mainframe. Exactly. It sounds like 00:05:11.779 --> 00:05:13.459 sci -fi, but when you really think about it, 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:15.300 you can almost see the appeal. Oh, entirely. 00:05:15.379 --> 00:05:17.439 I mean, if you are drowning in mortgage debt 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:20.420 or facing bankruptcy, the idea that there is 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:22.899 a secret bank account with millions of dollars 00:05:22.899 --> 00:05:26.180 just waiting for you, that's an incredibly seductive 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:28.379 lifeline. What's fascinating here is how they 00:05:28.379 --> 00:05:32.779 use the concept of consent to justify their actions 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:35.879 within this framework. How so? Well, if statutory 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:38.920 law is quite literally just a commercial contract 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.920 written by a rogue corporation, then sovereign 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:44.920 citizens believe we are only bound by it because 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.310 we unknowingly consented. So we opted in without 00:05:48.310 --> 00:05:50.949 realizing it. Exactly. They think we are tricked 00:05:50.949 --> 00:05:53.050 into signing these contracts by doing completely 00:05:53.050 --> 00:05:55.629 normal things, like getting a driver's license, 00:05:56.069 --> 00:05:59.009 using a ZIP code, or even carrying a Social Security 00:05:59.009 --> 00:06:01.750 card. Which means, in their minds, laws aren't 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:04.230 moral rules or societal obligations at all. Nope. 00:06:04.490 --> 00:06:06.610 They are basically just terms of service agreements. 00:06:06.750 --> 00:06:08.670 That is exactly how they view them. And if it's 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:10.629 just a terms of service agreement, you can simply 00:06:10.629 --> 00:06:13.180 uncheck the box and opt out. Precisely. That 00:06:13.180 --> 00:06:14.939 is why in those viral videos you always hear 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:17.279 them repeating the phrase, I do not consent. 00:06:17.620 --> 00:06:20.759 Over and over again. Yeah. It's not just stubbornness. 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:25.120 They genuinely believe that verbally refusing 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.220 to consent to the terms of service of this corporate 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:31.560 government magically grants them total legal 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.360 immunity. Incredible. They also believe that 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:37.160 the legitimate common law system was secretly 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:41.839 replaced by commercial law, specifically, admiralty 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:46.089 law. Wait, Admiralty Law, like the law of the 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:48.790 sea. Yes, international shipping commerce. And 00:06:48.790 --> 00:06:51.569 the proof they use from the sources to claim 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:53.709 we are all secretly operating under maritime 00:06:53.709 --> 00:06:56.850 law is just amazing to me. Oh, the flags. The 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:59.310 flags. They look at the gold fringe on the American 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:01.310 flags displayed in courtrooms. Right. They see 00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:03.829 that decorative fringe and conclude, aha. That's 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:05.990 a maritime flag. This is an admiralty court. 00:07:06.089 --> 00:07:07.829 Yep. So when a judge is talking to them, they 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.230 don't see a public servant. They see an agent 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:12.649 of a foreign corporate power trying to enforce 00:07:12.649 --> 00:07:14.910 international shipping laws on a land dwelling 00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:17.610 human. That is the exact logical leap they make. 00:07:17.970 --> 00:07:20.829 It completely recontextualizes every single interaction 00:07:20.829 --> 00:07:22.769 with authority. OK, hang on. I'm confused, though. 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:25.050 Let's say I'm a sovereign citizen. I believe 00:07:25.050 --> 00:07:27.889 the system is a giant illegitimate corporate 00:07:27.889 --> 00:07:30.750 contract, and I want to opt out and access that 00:07:30.750 --> 00:07:34.050 secret straw man money. Right. How do I actually 00:07:34.050 --> 00:07:36.930 do that? Because from the source material, this 00:07:36.930 --> 00:07:39.009 isn't just about yelling, I don't consent at 00:07:39.009 --> 00:07:41.509 police officers. No, not at all. They have these 00:07:41.509 --> 00:07:45.410 highly specific, almost magical rituals they 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:48.389 perform with paperwork. Right. Since they believe 00:07:48.389 --> 00:07:50.930 they're fighting a literal bureaucratic corporate 00:07:50.930 --> 00:07:54.519 entity, their tactics revolve around are document 00:07:54.519 --> 00:07:57.379 formalities. Like what? Well, a very common one 00:07:57.379 --> 00:08:00.839 is using red ink or sometimes literal blood. 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:03.939 Wait, blood to sign documents? Yes. They are 00:08:03.939 --> 00:08:06.180 mailing documents to the DMV signed in their 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:08.439 own blood. They absolutely are. The rationale 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:10.740 there is that black or blue ink is considered 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:13.220 corporate ink. Oh, of course. Right, it binds 00:08:13.220 --> 00:08:16.199 you to the straw man. But red ink, or your actual 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:19.180 blood, is meant to legally prove that you are 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:21.339 the flesh and blood living person signing the 00:08:21.339 --> 00:08:23.379 document entirely separate from the corporate 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:26.240 shell. That is intense. They will also use postage 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.399 stamps and physical thumb prints on legal documents 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:31.480 to make them quote unquote authoritative. Why 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:34.320 a postage stamp? That seems so random. It goes 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:36.679 back to a severe misunderstanding of international 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:39.289 law. They point to the Universal Postal Union. 00:08:39.529 --> 00:08:42.110 Which is a real thing, right? It is a real international 00:08:42.110 --> 00:08:44.909 organization that coordinates postal policies 00:08:44.909 --> 00:08:48.450 among member nations. But sovereign citizens 00:08:48.450 --> 00:08:51.789 believe that by affixing a stamp to a legal document 00:08:51.789 --> 00:08:54.309 and signing over it, they're essentially acting 00:08:54.309 --> 00:08:57.629 as an independent postmaster. The postmaster. 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:00.909 Yeah. In their minds, this elevates their personal 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:03.590 legal status to that of an independent sovereign 00:09:03.590 --> 00:09:07.230 nation. which means local courts have zero jurisdiction 00:09:07.230 --> 00:09:09.029 over them. It's like they're trying to cast a 00:09:09.029 --> 00:09:11.610 spell using office supplies. Exactly. And the 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:14.330 language they use is just as strange. Our sources 00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:16.429 highlight a man named David Wynn Miller, who 00:09:16.429 --> 00:09:19.309 created an entire linguistic system. Write quantum 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:21.730 grammar. Quantum grammar, what is that? Also 00:09:21.730 --> 00:09:24.710 known as parsed syntax grammar. Miller basically 00:09:24.710 --> 00:09:26.929 convinced thousands of people that standard English 00:09:26.929 --> 00:09:29.370 is a trick designed to enslave them. A trick? 00:09:29.509 --> 00:09:32.269 Yeah, his system is this incredibly complex unorthodox 00:09:32.269 --> 00:09:35.029 version of English that relies heavily on very 00:09:35.029 --> 00:09:37.529 unusual punctuation. Right, I saw this in the 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.110 text, like putting hyphens and colons right in 00:09:40.110 --> 00:09:41.830 the middle of your name. Exactly. So instead 00:09:41.830 --> 00:09:44.009 of John Doe, it's John hyphen, Robert colon Doe. 00:09:44.149 --> 00:09:46.669 Yep. To anyone else, it just looks like a typo. 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:49.970 Yeah. But to them, Spelling your name normally, 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:52.269 especially in all capital letters, which is how 00:09:52.269 --> 00:09:54.409 it usually appears on a driver's license or a 00:09:54.409 --> 00:09:58.230 bill or a court document, is a trap. A trap that 00:09:58.230 --> 00:10:01.190 binds you to the corporation. You got it. It 00:10:01.190 --> 00:10:04.409 only applies to your corporate strawman. By adding 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:07.289 that strange punctuation, they think they are 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:10.549 creating a legal firewall between the human and 00:10:10.549 --> 00:10:13.070 the corporation. The linguistic gymnastics don't 00:10:13.070 --> 00:10:15.570 even stop at punctuation, though. No, they really 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:17.629 don't. Think about a standard court hearing or 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:20.629 a traffic stop. An officer or a judge will almost 00:10:20.629 --> 00:10:23.210 always ask, do you understand? Sure, just to 00:10:23.210 --> 00:10:25.129 make sure you're following. Right. But a sovereign 00:10:25.129 --> 00:10:28.649 citizen is highly trained to actively refuse 00:10:28.649 --> 00:10:31.830 to say yes to that. They will respond with, I 00:10:31.830 --> 00:10:33.730 comprehend. Because they break down the word 00:10:33.730 --> 00:10:36.509 understand, literally. Yes. To them, it means 00:10:36.509 --> 00:10:39.669 to stand under, as in, I agree to stand under 00:10:39.669 --> 00:10:42.789 your legal jurisdiction. Exactly. They are absolutely 00:10:42.789 --> 00:10:45.570 terrified of creating what they call Joinder. 00:10:45.909 --> 00:10:48.830 Joinder? Yeah. Joinder is actually a real legal 00:10:48.830 --> 00:10:52.190 term about joining parties in a lawsuit. But 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:54.929 substance use it to mean accidentally forming 00:10:54.929 --> 00:10:57.049 a legally binding contract with the government 00:10:57.049 --> 00:10:59.649 just through your words. Wait, I have to point 00:10:59.649 --> 00:11:01.730 out a massive contradiction here based on the 00:11:01.730 --> 00:11:03.809 sources. Let's hear it. If their entire goal 00:11:03.809 --> 00:11:06.389 is to reject the government, reject its commercial 00:11:06.389 --> 00:11:09.600 law and absolutely avoid Joinder. Right. Why 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:12.120 are they obsessively using the government's own 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:14.539 systems to fight it? That's a million dollar 00:11:14.539 --> 00:11:16.620 question. I mean, the Wikipedia article mentions 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:19.720 them constantly filing documents citing the Uniform 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.220 Commercial Code, the UCC, or filing property 00:11:23.220 --> 00:11:25.860 liens with county clerks. Oh, they love the UCC. 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:28.500 But the UCC is just a standardized set of laws 00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:30.700 that govern real world business transactions 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:33.360 in the U .S. It's literally how banks know a 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:35.320 contract in New York is valid in California. 00:11:35.940 --> 00:11:38.539 Exactly. So why are anti -government rebels using 00:11:38.539 --> 00:11:41.139 interstate banking codes to fight speeding tickets? 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:43.840 Isn't that totally backwards? It is a glaring 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:45.820 contradiction. Right. But this is where we have 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:47.620 to look at the psychology behind the movement. 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:51.320 It is fundamentally a modern form of magical 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.840 thinking. Magical thinking. Yeah. They view the 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:56.860 legal system as a spell book. It's not about 00:11:56.860 --> 00:11:59.820 logic or internal consistency at all. It's about 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:03.559 finding the correct incantation. They truly believe 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:06.379 that if you string together the exact right combination 00:12:06.379 --> 00:12:09.860 of legal jargon, cite the UCC, and follow the 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.139 exact right form with the red thumbprint, then 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:15.019 the system has to obey. Yes. The system is physically 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:17.159 and legally forced to obey you. And when the 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:20.019 system inevitably doesn't obey them, they retaliate. 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:23.100 The sources describe a terrifying tactic called 00:12:23.100 --> 00:12:26.159 paper terrorism. Yes. Paper terrorism is huge. 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:28.360 It's the practice of completely overwhelming 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:30.639 the court systems and local government offices 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.500 with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.860 of these incomprehensible pseudo legalese documents. 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:39.659 Just burying them in paperwork. Exactly. And 00:12:39.659 --> 00:12:41.860 if a judge rules against a sovereign citizen 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:44.220 or, say, a police officer writes them a ticket, 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:46.460 that official is going to be targeted. Yeah, 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:48.840 the text says the sovereign citizen will often 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:52.460 file a completely false multi -million dollar 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:54.960 property land against that official's personal 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:57.159 home. Which is absolutely devastating. It ruins 00:12:57.159 --> 00:12:59.820 their credit rating. A public servant might go 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:01.580 to sell their house and find out they have a 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:04.600 bogus 10 million dollar land on it. It takes 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:07.639 years and thousands of dollars in legal fees 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.279 for these innocent officials to just clear their 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:12.860 names. It's a nightmare for local clerks and 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.850 judges. The sources even mentioned them setting 00:13:15.850 --> 00:13:19.809 up fake common law courts in like hotel conference 00:13:19.809 --> 00:13:21.809 rooms. Oh yeah, fake grand juries. Right, to 00:13:21.809 --> 00:13:24.210 put public officials on trial, sometimes sentencing 00:13:24.210 --> 00:13:27.649 a real judge or a sheriff in absentia. Yeah, 00:13:27.789 --> 00:13:30.149 so we have the blood ink documents, the thumb 00:13:30.149 --> 00:13:32.629 prints, the quantum grammar, the obsession with 00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:36.210 the UCC, and the paper terrorism. Which, you 00:13:36.210 --> 00:13:38.110 know, that might feel very empowering when they're 00:13:38.110 --> 00:13:39.710 sitting at their kitchen table putting stamps 00:13:39.710 --> 00:13:42.370 on documents. Sure. But what actually happens 00:13:42.370 --> 00:13:44.730 when this alternate reality collides with an 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:47.629 actual physical courtroom? Right. When they stand 00:13:47.629 --> 00:13:49.929 before a real judge and say, I do not consent. 00:13:50.029 --> 00:13:53.230 You are a maritime entity. What happens is an 00:13:53.230 --> 00:13:56.610 absolute 100 percent failure rate. Zero percent 00:13:56.610 --> 00:13:59.350 success. Zero. Let's be very, very clear about 00:13:59.350 --> 00:14:01.629 the source material here. These arguments have 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:03.929 literally never won in a recognized court of 00:14:03.929 --> 00:14:07.240 law ever. The Wikipedia article highlights this 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:10.419 fascinating landmark Canadian case from 2012. 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:14.000 Meads v. Meads. Oh, that's a classic one. Yeah, 00:14:14.059 --> 00:14:16.220 a man tried to use sovereign citizen tactics 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:18.789 in a standard divorce proceeding. Right. The 00:14:18.789 --> 00:14:21.330 judge in that case, Associate Chief Justice John 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:25.029 Rook, wrote a massive 150 -page decision that 00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:27.429 just systematically dismantled every single one 00:14:27.429 --> 00:14:29.570 of these tactics. He tore it all apart. He did. 00:14:29.809 --> 00:14:31.909 He famously categorized them under the umbrella 00:14:31.909 --> 00:14:34.929 term Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments, 00:14:35.169 --> 00:14:38.309 or OPCA, and he completely dismissed the strawman 00:14:38.309 --> 00:14:41.309 theory as nonsense or gobbledygook. It's important 00:14:41.309 --> 00:14:44.990 to understand that judges, prosecutors, and lawyers 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:47.700 know exactly what this is now. They've seen it 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:50.779 a thousand times. Exactly. They share manuals 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:53.159 on how to deal with it. It simply does not work. 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:56.399 But the real tragedy is the fact that it fails 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.279 in court hasn't stopped a massive industry of 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.639 grifters from taking advantage of desperate people. 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.279 Here's where it gets really interesting. There 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:07.919 is an entire ecosystem of gurus in this movement, 00:15:08.039 --> 00:15:10.120 isn't there? Oh, absolutely. They know these 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:14.139 tactics fail, but they make real actual money 00:15:14.139 --> 00:15:17.679 selling templates, fake license plates, and how 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.159 -to manuals to vulnerable people who are just 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:22.340 looking for a way out of debt. Yeah, you see 00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:24.360 people like Heather Ann Tucci -Jarroff. Right. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:26.860 She was actually a former state prosecutor who 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:29.399 flipped and became a sovereign citizen guru. 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:33.759 I know. She advised a follower on how to illegally 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:36.259 access funds, claiming it was from his secret 00:15:36.259 --> 00:15:38.279 strawman account. But it wasn't. No, it was just 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:40.500 a bank glitch. It resulted in the embezzlement 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:43.620 of $2 million. Wow. She ended up going to federal 00:15:43.620 --> 00:15:46.639 prison for wire fraud and money laundering. Then 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:49.360 there's Bruce Doucet, who styled himself a, quote, 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:52.360 superior court judge of a fake common law court 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:54.840 in Colorado. Right, one of those hotel conference 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.610 room judges. Exactly. He traveled the country 00:15:57.610 --> 00:16:00.250 helping people set up these fake courts to intimidate 00:16:00.250 --> 00:16:03.100 public officials with paper terrorism. And how 00:16:03.100 --> 00:16:05.259 did that work out for him? He was eventually 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:08.500 sentenced to 38 years in prison for running a 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:12.039 racketeering enterprise. 38 years? Yeah. It basically 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:15.059 operates like organized crime. Even celebrity 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:18.159 actor Wesley Snipes fell for this. Oh yeah, the 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:21.000 tax evasion case. He tried to use sovereign citizen 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.240 tax evasion tactics, claiming he was a non -resident 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:26.980 alien who was immune from taxes. And he also 00:16:26.980 --> 00:16:29.220 ended up serving time in federal prison. Right. 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:31.539 But if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:16:32.160 --> 00:16:34.700 The tragedy here isn't just people losing their 00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.179 money to grifters or going to jail for tax evasion. 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:40.580 No. The real concern is that this movement is 00:16:40.580 --> 00:16:43.340 genuinely dangerous to public safety. Exactly. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:45.659 This isn't just harmless eccentricity. The FBI 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:49.240 explicitly classifies sovereign citizen extremists 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:51.559 as domestic terrorists. Yeah, you really have 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:53.960 to look at the history of physical violence associated 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:56.840 with this ideology. It gets dark. Very dark. 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.600 Take Terry Nichols, one of the perpetrators of 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:02.710 the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. which killed 00:17:02.710 --> 00:17:06.849 168 people. He subscribed heavily to sovereign 00:17:06.849 --> 00:17:10.009 citizen ideology and used their exact tactics 00:17:10.009 --> 00:17:12.670 to try and dismiss his credit card debt leading 00:17:12.670 --> 00:17:15.269 up to the attack. More recently... Daryl Brooks, 00:17:15.589 --> 00:17:18.589 the man who drove his SUV into the Waukesha Christmas 00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:22.430 Parade in 2021, killing six people, tried to 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:25.130 use sovereign citizen arguments to defend himself 00:17:25.130 --> 00:17:27.829 in his murder trial. That was a wild trial to 00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:30.809 watch. It was. He claimed to be a sovereign living 00:17:30.809 --> 00:17:33.690 entity, argued the state of Wisconsin was a corporate 00:17:33.690 --> 00:17:36.789 fiction, and kept demanding the judge prove jurisdiction. 00:17:36.829 --> 00:17:39.470 Right. The judge rightfully shut it down and 00:17:39.470 --> 00:17:41.869 he was sentenced to life in prison. And beyond 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:44.640 these high profile tragic cases, there are countless 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.859 violent shootouts stemming from simple routine 00:17:46.859 --> 00:17:48.619 traffic stops. Just like the one we talked about 00:17:48.619 --> 00:17:50.920 at the beginning. Exactly. Think about the psychology 00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:53.000 here. Right. When you convince someone that the 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.559 police have literally zero legal authority. That 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:58.480 they are basically armed kidnappers. Right. Acting 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:01.480 as enforcers for a rogue corporation. It instantly 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:04.059 creates an incredibly volatile life or death 00:18:04.059 --> 00:18:06.119 situation right there on the side of the highway. 00:18:06.619 --> 00:18:09.559 So we have an ideology with a zero percent success 00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:12.420 rate in court that regularly leads to prison 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:15.559 time, financial ruin or violent shootouts. Yeah. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:18.460 The logical question is, why isn't this movement 00:18:18.460 --> 00:18:21.799 dying out? It's actually growing. Right. If the 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.200 core theory relies on the U .S. abandoning the 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.680 gold standard in 1933, how on earth is this spreading 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.079 globally? Well, to understand how a very U .S.-centric 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:33.480 theory spreads, we have to look at its origins 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:35.859 and how it mutates. OK. The Sovereign Citizen 00:18:35.859 --> 00:18:37.779 Movement actually started in the United States 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:40.920 in the early 1970s, rooted heavily in far -right 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:43.420 anti -Semitic and supremacist groups. Right. 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:45.839 The sources point to groups like the Posse Comitatus, 00:18:45.980 --> 00:18:48.039 founded by a Christian identity minister named 00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:51.400 William Potter Gale in 1971. In the context of 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.700 the 70s, they believed income tax and debt -based 00:18:53.700 --> 00:18:56.519 currency were tools of a global Jewish conspiracy, 00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.460 and they used this early pseudo -legal philosophy 00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:02.039 to justify extreme racism and violence against 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:05.519 tax collectors. But over the decade, the ideology 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:09.460 mutated. How so? It detached from its explicitly 00:19:09.460 --> 00:19:13.259 racist roots and expanded. Now you have a massive 00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:16.119 diversity of groups using the exact same tactics. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:18.839 Right. For example, there are African -American 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:21.480 groups like the Moorish sovereign citizens who 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:25.500 claim immunity from U .S. law by citing a 1786 00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:28.380 peace treaty with Morocco. Claiming they are 00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:31.440 indigenous inhabitants not subject to modern 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:33.660 courts. Exactly. And I want to pause here and 00:19:33.660 --> 00:19:35.720 emphasize for the listener, we are being strictly 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.220 impartial here. We are just reporting what the 00:19:38.220 --> 00:19:40.380 source text. It's clearly state. Absolutely. 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.240 We aren't endorsing any political viewpoint. 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:44.799 Right. Because you also have left -wing offshoots 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.460 like the Freeman on the Land movement that gained 00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:50.099 immense popularity in Canada. Yeah. And recently 00:19:50.099 --> 00:19:52.960 there's been a massive overlap with the QAnon 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.960 conspiracy theory and anti -vaccine movements. 00:19:56.099 --> 00:19:58.299 It's everywhere. It really is. Left -wing, right 00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:00.519 -wing, it doesn't matter. They are all using 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:03.160 the pseudo -legal ideology to air their specific 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:06.220 grievances against the state. It acts as a completely 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:10.539 neutral umbrella. It just provides a shared pseudo 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:13.380 -intellectual language for highly diverse groups. 00:20:13.779 --> 00:20:15.980 It's literally like open source software. Oh, 00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:18.380 that's a good comparison. Yeah. Anyone from any 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:20.559 country or any political background can just 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:23.380 download this anti -government code. They tweak 00:20:23.380 --> 00:20:25.759 a few historical dates to fit their local narrative, 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.099 and they deploy it. Yep. Which explains how it 00:20:28.099 --> 00:20:30.859 crossed borders. The internet exported this American 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:33.779 ideology all over the world. Yes. For instance, 00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:36.000 in Germany, you have the Reichsburger movement. 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:38.279 The Reichsburger. Right. They obviously can't 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:41.619 use the 1871 U .S. law, so they adapt the code. 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:44.140 They believe the modern German state is actually 00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:46.619 a corporation created by the Allies after World 00:20:46.619 --> 00:20:49.000 War II. Oh, wow. And they believe the borders 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:51.839 of the pre -war German Reich still legally exist. 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:55.359 They even had an armed plot to overthrow the 00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:57.900 German government recently. And in France, the 00:20:57.900 --> 00:21:00.220 sources mention a group called One Nation that 00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:02.960 denies the legitimacy of the French state entirely. 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:06.440 Same exact tactics. Yeah. And the text note that 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:09.400 during the COVID -19 pandemic, we saw a massive 00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:12.220 surge of sovereign citizen activity in Australia 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:14.460 and New Zealand. Remember seeing those videos. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.099 Right. People who were frustrated by public health 00:21:17.099 --> 00:21:20.039 mandates suddenly started using Magna Carta citations 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:22.859 and claiming they were sovereign living men just 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:25.000 to get out of lockdown fines. You'll notice a 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:27.619 pattern there, too. Whenever there is a massive 00:21:27.619 --> 00:21:30.779 social or economic crisis, this movement spikes. 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:33.940 Oh, really? Yeah. It gained major traction during 00:21:33.940 --> 00:21:37.500 the 1980s farm crisis when agricultural workers 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:40.119 were facing math foreclosures. Makes sense. It 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:42.759 spiked again during the 2008 subprime mortgage 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:45.339 crisis when people were losing their homes. And 00:21:45.339 --> 00:21:47.339 it spiked again during the global disruption 00:21:47.339 --> 00:21:49.980 and isolation of the COVID -19 pandemic. Because 00:21:49.980 --> 00:21:52.599 it preys on vulnerability. Exactly. When people 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:54.359 feel like they're losing everything they've worked 00:21:54.359 --> 00:21:57.099 for, their farms, their homes, their jobs, their 00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.880 freedom of movement, they are desperate for a 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.279 lifeline. Anybody would be. Right. And this ideology 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:06.019 steps in and offers them a false sense of control 00:22:06.019 --> 00:22:08.299 in a world that feels completely out of control. 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:11.539 It offers secret knowledge. It tells a disenfranchised 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:14.019 person, you aren't a victim of a bad economy. 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:16.859 You are a sleeping millionaire. And here is the 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:20.400 magic spell to wake up. We've covered incredible 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.119 ground today. We really have. We've traced this 00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:27.380 from the racist origins of the 1970s Posse Comitatus 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:30.380 to people mailing documents signed in literal 00:22:30.380 --> 00:22:34.660 blood to fake multi -million dollar liens and 00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:37.759 using bizarre punctuation to try and unlock imaginary 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:40.200 government bank accounts. It's quite the journey. 00:22:40.579 --> 00:22:43.380 It has mutated from a fringe American anti -tax 00:22:43.380 --> 00:22:46.500 protest into a global open -source pseudo -legal 00:22:46.500 --> 00:22:50.079 contagion that clogs court systems and unfortunately 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:52.700 puts lives at risk. So what does this all mean? 00:22:52.859 --> 00:22:54.440 Well, I think the most important takeaway for 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:56.660 you, the listener, is to realize that the sovereign 00:22:56.660 --> 00:22:58.880 citizen movement isn't just a bizarre internet 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.420 subculture to point and laugh at. Right. It is 00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:04.359 fundamentally a glaring symptom of profound societal 00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:06.700 alienation. What do you mean? Think about the 00:23:06.700 --> 00:23:09.640 reality of our world. The legitimate legal and 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:12.480 financial systems are incredibly confusing. They 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:15.890 are notoriously expensive. steeped in actual 00:23:15.890 --> 00:23:18.910 jargon, and to the average person facing eviction, 00:23:19.329 --> 00:23:22.210 bankruptcy, or a complex legal battle, those 00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:25.450 systems can feel completely inaccessible and 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:27.230 fundamentally stacked against them. Yeah, it's 00:23:27.230 --> 00:23:29.670 overwhelming. Right. If the real system feels 00:23:29.670 --> 00:23:32.210 entirely rigged, unaffordable, and impossible 00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:35.630 to navigate, is it any wonder that some desperate 00:23:35.630 --> 00:23:38.150 people choose to invent their own reality? A 00:23:38.150 --> 00:23:40.829 reality where they have the power. Exactly. A 00:23:40.829 --> 00:23:43.640 reality where... through magic words and red 00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:46.460 thumb prints, they're finally the ones in control. 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:48.880 Perhaps the rise of pseudo -law isn't just a 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.220 story about delusion and internet grifters. It's 00:23:52.220 --> 00:23:54.759 a giant flashing warning sign about the failing 00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:57.779 accessibility of our actual law. That is a fascinating 00:23:57.779 --> 00:24:00.599 and deeply sobering way to look at it. Because 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:02.480 at the end of the day, when that driver rolls 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:04.380 down the window and tells the officer they are 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:07.339 traveling in a conveyance, they aren't just arguing 00:24:07.339 --> 00:24:10.460 a broken taillight. They are desperately trying 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:12.960 to assert control over a system they feel has 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:15.819 entirely abandoned them. Thank you for joining 00:24:15.819 --> 00:24:17.799 us on this deep dive. We'll catch you next time.