Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed.
So if you don’t consent to being governed, does the law not apply to you?
I do not consent!
Does this guy really think that by saying these magic words, the cops will just say
“oh sorry, our bad, you’re free to go?”
I ask that jokingly, but I also know the answer.
Yes, he does.
This video is brought to you by Brilliant.
These people go by multiple names around the world, they’re known as Freemen on the Land
in the UK and the various commonwealth realms.
But here in the US they’re typically known as Sovereign Citizens.
But they also sometimes call themselves Free Inhabitants.
Uhm, but we told you that he’s an Article 4 Free Inhabitant, so he does not have to
have a license.
While this movement has more or less always existed, it really took off in the 1970s.
With people publishing books and giving seminars on how they could get out of speeding tickets
or paying taxes.
Which is why Sovereign Citizens and Tax Protest movements often go hand in hand.
Over the decades they have become much more violent, withlaw enforcement having to go
through special training on how to deal with them, they’ve even been labeled as a domestic
terrorist movement.
Terry Nichols, an accomplice to the Oklahoma City bombing was a Sovereign Citizen.
They also employ a number of “paper terrorism” tactics involving putting false liens on your
property.
There are currently 300,000 Sovereign Citizens in the United States, significantly larger
than any other group I’ve talked about recently.
A Sovereign Citizen is someone who believes that they are not subject to the jurisdiction
of a government, be it federal or state, or that the government itself is illegitimate…
so they are sovereign.
Legal word – Sovereign – it’s a legal word!
There are three flavors of Sovereign Citizens.
Firstly, there are the religious types, the ones who believe only god can rule over them.
You are not god, you have no jurisdiction over me.
The second group is a little more nuanced, the diplomatic types, who believe that since
they are not citizens of the United States, they are given diplomatic immunity.
That law only applies to US citizens.
Well, where are you a citizen of?
I am not a US citizen, I am a free inhabitant, I
am of the Earth, I do not belong to any corporation I do not belong to any country.
A free inhabitant is… they are free people, they have all of the rights of a US citizen
without following any of the laws.
This is ridiculous for… several reasons.
Even if you were not a US citizen, while you are in the physical United States, you have
to follow the laws of the United States.
Even diplomats have to follow the law, it doesn’t work in reality the way it works
on TV.
If I go to England and get pulled over for driving on the correct side of the road, I
don’t get to say “I’m not a British citizen, your laws don’t apply to me.”
The third group is a lot more complicated, the constitutional types, who have multiple
theories about why the US federal government is not legitimate.
And like all good things, they come in threes.
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, we all agree with that.
Well, most of us agree with that.
The Preamble, the first paragraph which is explains this document’s purpose, starts
with…
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union.
A more perfect union… more perfect than what?
If you took high school civics or… went to elementary school, you should know that
before the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation.
Which were very imperfect.
The first sub group of constitutional Sovereign Citizens believe that the Constitution was
never successfully ratified and that we are still living under the Articles of Confederation.
Article 4 Free Inhabitant, pursuant to the Articles of Confederation, you can look it
up, it’s in the United States book of codes.
The United States book of codes doesn’t exist, I have no idea what she’s talking
about…
Unless she’s trying to cite US Code, which several other Sovereign Citizens do in order
to say they’re not citizens, but nationals, which still makes you subject to the laws
of the United States.
So what is a free inhabitant?
The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people
of the different states in this union, the free inhabitants of each of these states…
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states.
All this means is that if you live in one state and you travel to another state, you
are legally treated the same as a citizen of that state.
Free inhabitants and free citizens are not mutually exclusive terms.
Just because you freely inhabit one state doesn’t mean you’re not also a citizen
of that state.
But none of this matters anyway because we don’t live under the Articles of Confederation.
At least, we don’t, the rest of society has agreed to follow the Constitution now.
It’s been like 230 years, it’s time to get on board.
Are you a US citizen?
No.
You’re not a US citizen?
I was not born in Washington DC or any territory under federal jurisdiction, so no I am not
a US citizen.
Were you born in the United States of America or any of the states?
I was born in America, yes I’m a state citizen of one of the several states.
This particular brand of Sovereigns agree that they are a citizen of one of the several
states, but do not agree that they are US citizens.
They at least agree that the Constitution is law, so that’s progress.
But they have an interesting interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which among other
things, created birthright citizenship.
And according to Sovereign Citizens, a second tier of citizen.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
They believe that this amendment created federal US citizenship alongside state citizenship.
According to them, when it said the word “and” there, that is denoting a separation of the
two rather than a conjunction.
And that is somewhat true, along with being an American you are also a Californian or
Oklahoman.
That’s why you pay state income tax and we have in-state college tuition.
But again, these aren’t mutually exclusive, you are both rather than one or the other.
Likewise, they believe that the only way to become a US citizen is to either opt-in, which
we’ll get to, or be subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
This line is very important to Sovereign Citizens.
Only people born in Washington DC or a federal territory are born under the jurisdiction
of the federal government.
Therefore, they are not US Citizens, they are state citizens.
Just for the record, most laws that Sovereign Citizens get in trouble for, like speeding
or DUIs, are state laws.
Even murder, for the most part, is a state crime.
So I’m not entirely sure why they give cops and courts such a hard time… unless they
think these laws only apply to some abstract concept of a person rather than actual flesh
and blood people.
So let’s talk about the Sovereign Citizens who think laws only apply to some abstract
concept of a person rather than actual flesh and blood people.
You’ll need to meet your Strawman.
He was born the same day you were, he looks like you, has the same name, and lives in
your house.
From every birth certificate, a legal personality or legal fiction is created with the same
name to confuse little old you into thinking it’s you.
So, there is a human you and a paper you.
Or as it’s commonly known, a Strawman.
In 1933, the United States abandoned the gold standard and allowed the dollar to become
a free-floating fiat currency.
Sovereign Citizens believe that at this point, the government lost its legitimacy.
It created a legal, paper identity for every person in order to back up this fiat currency,
known as a strawman or corporate shell.
They even believe that this corporate shell identity holds money in a secret government
account.
They will only accept payment in silver or gold but will happily make payments in “bills
of exchange” which pay out of that government account.
The only way to access this account is by reclaiming your sovereignty and separating
your corporate personhood from your flesh and blood individual.
I’m an individual not a person.
You’re not a person?
David Hall is a person, I’m a private individual.
David Hall is a person under the color of law sir.
Okay where is David Hall then, the person David Hall?
He exists on paper sir, David Hall is a corporation.
I’m not a person.
See you deal here with admiralty/maritime jurisdictions, which deals with persons, which
I am not.
He’s not in some weird maritime Merchant Marine court.
This is the American flag, this is how it appears on soldier’s uniforms, on police
uniforms, and even in court rooms.
You see that little gold fringe around the edge there?
To a Sovereign Citizen, that makes it an admiralty flag, which means it only has jurisdiction
over maritime and certain commercial laws.
Of course that’s not what it means to the rest of us or even the flag code.
The gold fringe around the flag is literally the only accessory to the flag that is neither
required nor prohibited.
It also has no legal meaning.
There is no law saying that gold fringe makes it a naval ensign.
And this is where we can really get down to the heart of what Sovereign Citizens believe,
that through some loophole or turn of phrase, they can make it so that the law doesn’t
apply to them.
That’s not the right flag, this court doesn’t have jurisdiction on this matter.
I wasn’t driving, I was traveling.
I’m traveling in my car, I’m not like, driving, I’m not using it for like...
You’re not driving right now?
I’m traveling in my vehicle.
You used the term driving, and I was traveling sir.
Traveling.
I’m not a person, I’m a flesh and blood individual.
As long as they don’t consent to the fact that that paper strawman is them, they are
exempt from our laws.
Can I see your Idaho state license?
No, I don’t have one.
You don’t have one?
My person does, but I don’t, and I don’t wish to create joinder with you.
Joinder is the connection between your corporate shell and you the individual.
Joinder is created when you accept any government document with that name on it, whether it’s
a birth certificate, social security card, or driver’s license.
There’s also a heavy significance placed on capital letters, if the name is in all
caps, it’s referring to your corporate shell, not you.
Sometimes you’ll see your surname in capitals, just like on a gravestone!
That’s because your strawman is dead and just a silly piece of paper.
This is why they refuse to carry any documentation, or pay taxes, or even accept mail with a ZIP
code on it, because they don’t want to join their identities.
When you go to court, you represent your strawman.
So you, the human, take on any costs, fees, taxes, and fines involved for the strawman.
The human you doesn’t even need to pay them.
But you made a contract with the court by appearing on behalf of your legal personality
or strawman.
They really do believe that by refusing these things and using the right combination of
words in court, they will be exempt from the law.
Perhaps that’s because they took a course from Brilliant.org/knowingbetter.
Brilliant is a problem-solving website where you can learn about Science and Math, including
Out of the Box Geometry.
That’s right, your constitutional law need not be the only thing you have an unorthodox
interpretation of.
Brilliant breaks these concepts down into smaller maritime jurisdictions so that you
understand them before moving on.
Perhaps you’d like to try your luck at getting a cop you let you out of a speeding ticket
by asserting your Articles of Confederation status?
Make sure to take this course on Games of Chance.
Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll work out a lot better for you than it does for everyone
else.
Alright, you’re under arrest – No I’m not!
So head on over to brilliant.org/knowingbetter to get 20% off, you’ll also be supporting
the channel when you do.
I’ve used the word “believe” a lot in this video, which might be slightly unfair
to other beliefs that I’ve discussed in the past.
Sovereign Citizens are just plain wrong.
They don’t have faith in some untestable supernatural thing, they just have a woefully
inaccurate misinterpretation of the law.
Even if they believe the government has no power or that the laws don’t apply to them,
the rest of us do.
I do not consent, I do not consent!
Help!
I do not consent!
The reason no one is helping is because as a society, we consent.
And we have empowered certain individuals to ensure our safety and make sure everyone
else is following the law and paying their taxes.
Whether they be literal insane people or misinformed Sovereign Citizens.
It doesn’t matter if you respect the authority of the government of the land you are currently
in, because we do, and even as a visitor, you have to respect that, because now, you
know better.
I’m was at ThinkerCon this weekend so if you have access to a time machine make sure
to stop by and say hello yesterday.
I’d also like to give a shout out to my newest legendary patron Jim, if you’d also
like your name to be accidentally misspelled on this screen, head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter.
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