My friend says he is becoming an Sovereign National

r/

Wtf does becoming a Sovereign national even mean?! He asked me to sign some paperwork saying I’ve known him over 10 year and that he is the person on his drivers license. After a light Google search I told him I want nothing to do with it and it’s a big mistake. What paperwork is he filling out and how can I show him it’s a bad idea?

Comments

  1. GFrohman Avatar

    I’m assuming it’s some new variation of /r/Sovereigncitizen.

    Basically, looney people who believe the laws don’t apply to them due to some obscure misunderstood legal technicality, and they inevitably get tazed by law enforcement when they “stand up for their (fake) rights”.

  2. rootshirt Avatar

    Don’t worry, it’s all made up and none of it is legally binding lmao

  3. brock_lee Avatar

    Don’t sign anything, jesus. The whole concept of “we don’t believe we are subject to the government’s laws” while asking you to sign something that is used as some kind of legal document is the height of absurdity.

  4. cwthree Avatar

    Don’t sign anything. If he uses his made-up status to obtain anything, you could be seen as participating in fraud.

  5. LivingEnd44 Avatar

    Your friend will be ending up in prison. Just like every other Sovereign Citizen. Pretending laws don’t exist doesn’t make you immune to the consequences of violating them.

    Sovereign citizen arguments in court have never worked. Not even once. It always ends the same way. 

  6. Hughes930 Avatar

    Don’t sign anything, he’s a disaster waiting to happen. He’s probably going to commit a crime and then say some crazy shit in court.

  7. Alarming-Story-7247 Avatar

    Distance yourself from problematic people and don’t sign anything

  8. CL4P-L3K Avatar

    He needs to go fuck with the police immediately to assert dominance

  9. catwhowalksbyhimself Avatar

    Don’t sign anything or he’ll drag you into court when he inevitably gets into trouble because he literally does not think laws apply to him.

    You want nothing to do with this man.

  10. Mystic_ChickenTender Avatar

    Sounds like you have one less friend. Ask him how he feels about Jews. Sovereign citizens are almost always bigots

  11. machinist_jack Avatar

    Your friend is a moron. Keep your distance.

  12. Wargroth Avatar

    It means your friend is stupid

  13. Mekoides1 Avatar

    Your friend is profoundly misinformed and/or stupid. He’s going to do some absolutely insane stuff that’s going to land him in prison. Stay away.

  14. superzepto Avatar

    Sometime in the very near future, your friend is going to be making an appearance in court.

    There, he will eschew legal representation and represent himself.

    He will start with a very weird kind of “well actually” – the judge will address him by name, and he’ll make some absurd pseudo-technical point about naming.

    From that point on, your friend will be using what he THINKS is magical legal lingo that will prove to the court with a Saul Goodman-like demonstration that he is technically not subject to the law, that the government upholding the law is a corporation not a government, and possibly throw in some bullshit about being a “free man on the land”. If his charge is related to driving, he will dispute the definition of “driving” and claim that he was actually “Travelling” and doesn’t need a license for that.

    The magical legal lingo will not work. What may happen, if your friend isn’t facing court on a heavy charge, is that the judge and everyone else in the courtroom become so confused, frustrated, and bogged down by your friend’s constant stream of red hot bullshit that his case will be dismissed or adjourned to a later date when the judge can properly prepare for it. If that happens, your friend WILL proudly proclaim that he beat the system, he fought the law and he won.

    What you CAN do is look up your friend’s name in the court’s registry and see if he has a pending hearing. If he does, you can pre-empt him using your signature on paperwork by contacting the court and explaining that you signed it before you knew what situation it was for.

    What you should not do is pander to your friend’s delusions. Somebody or some group of somebodies has convinced him that he’s above the law, that he’s not a citizen of your country, and a whole host of other bullshit. He thinks he has secret, esoteric knowledge about the nature of civilisation and law that makes him special, and he will likely try to get you involved too. Resist his attempts.

    There’s a non-zero chance that sometime in the future you may see a video of your friend getting pulled over by a cop, trying his magical legal lingo on said cop, and discovered that he’d said that to the wrong cop at the wrong time when that cop smashes his driver’s side window, cuts his seatbelt, and pulls him out of the car to arrest him.

  15. kunzinator Avatar

    Just roll your eyes and say Okey dokey…. Had a friend do this and spent the night drinking and getting into an argument that turned heated on the topic of certified mail…

  16. Vinen Avatar

    Hes an idiot

  17. Chemical-Mail-2963 Avatar

    Please stay away from him. He will end up in jail or dead.

  18. poopshadows Avatar

    Absolutely DO NOT SIGN anything that connects you with his wildly illegal idea. Also, consider this person to be dangerous. He doesn’t think he is subject to laws. Stay away.

  19. sas5814 Avatar

    It means your friend is a moron who will likely end up in jail.

  20. SherryGabs Avatar

    I’ve seen so many real life police and court proceedings with these people. They carry a big stack of paperwork everywhere they go and keep referring to them as they’re laying out their BS.

  21. universal_boner Avatar

    Is your friend on meth?

  22. SobahJam Avatar

    For a quick sec I thought this was r/LPOTL

  23. pcetcedce Avatar

    Why is that guy your friend?

  24. Fuzzywalls Avatar

    You can’t show him it’s a bad idea. They won’t listen. Never met a “reformed” sovereign citizen.

  25. SmallBoobFan3 Avatar

    so they are all bonkers, i am not sure how it looks in usa, but in uk they are very often trying to say that statutory law is not real, and only common law dictates what is legal.

    my favourite argument is to claim that they are just defending pedoes (most child protective legislation is statutory, everything related to vidoe/photo/internet is statutory).

    not sure if you are looking to bring your friend back, but this is where i would start

  26. bdbone13 Avatar

    If he’s going to become a sovereign citizen, he needs the Safelight app.

  27. peeehhh Avatar

    It’s not a lie if you believe it.

  28. Bella_de_chaos Avatar

    Go to youtube and search sovereign citizen and watch some of them get their asses handed to them in court. Law Talk with Mike has several on his channel.

  29. HotBrownFun Avatar

    They are crazy. They think the law is a magic spell and if they pronounce it just right they can get invulnerability. Let’s say your friend is called Adam Smith. He now believes there is an Adam Smith that is him. There is also an ADAM SMITH that is his legal homonculus. They are two different people. All government taxes are owed by ADAM SMITH, not Adam Smith. Also when you’re born they create the alternate identity for you

  30. Flaky-Artichoke6641 Avatar
  31. Impossible_Month1718 Avatar

    Is your friend nuts?

  32. unstable_starperson Avatar

    It means that your friend plans on becoming incredibly annoying overall, and that they’ll be seeking out confrontations with law enforcement where they will never make the correct choices.

    If they’re dead set on going down this road, you need to either move right on and get them out of your life, or heavily educate yourself on what a sovereign citizen is, accept all of the potential risks, and stay friends for entertainment purposes.

  33. Aromatic_Bullfrog485 Avatar

    It means jail time is what it means.

  34. Lochbessmonster Avatar

    Everyone is saying your friend is a moron and maybe so but also your friend might be getting scammed. There are a dozen websites that sell “how to get out of traffic tickets” guides that charge people for the insane forms and petitions. They don’t work, they piss off the judge, and juries will convict all the way home.

  35. ppross53 Avatar

    It means he’s an idiot!!!

  36. The_Zobe Avatar

    Sounds like he’s being an idiot

  37. PlannerSean Avatar

    Your friend is basically joining a cult. Sorry.

  38. anhedoniandonair Avatar

    Sovereign citizens/libertarians are like house cats. They think they’re independent and in control but are totally dependent on all the systems they think they don’t need or use.