Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

Capitalism's broken promises breed humiliation and fury. And this, among some men, has created a movement in which everyone proclaims himself King.
A movement that is as self-destructive as it is incoherent.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

I've been wondering for a while what some of the really crazy stuff coming my way was about. Then I started researching the "sovereign citizen" movement and began to understand what I was seeing. It's one of the strangest belief systems I've encountered.
Thread/

Its adherents believe that, if they recite the right words, verbally or on paper, they can release themselves from the law of the land, from taxes, licences and criminal penalties. It's a magical belief in incantation.

They generate a welter of pseudo-legal documents, with which they bombard courts and officials. Some issue their own ID cards, licence plates and other legal paraphernalia, and believe that these protect them from the state.

In the US, some also believe that if they can utter the right words and perform the correct rituals, a hidden hoard of wealth, secreted by the US Treasury, will become available to them. This is similar to the cargo cult belief systems described by anthropologists in Melanesia.

It's easy to laugh at this movement. But, in some of its forms, it is a serious threat. It arose from an anti-semitic and racist agitation in the 1970s (the Posse Comitatus), and some adherents retain these views. It has already generated some lethal acts of terrorism.

Needless to say, it also undermines solidarity and effective political action, while exposing its followers to legal penalties: they seem constantly surprised that the law actually applies to them. Yet despite being one long concatenation of nonsense, the movement is growing.

This belief system and the incoherent protests it generates play a major role in the Canadian truck blockade and similar movements in the US. Anyone who seeks a fairer, kinder and more rational world should resist them.

Here's an example of a sovereign citizen movement in the UK. They call themselves "common law constables". But if these are constables, this is a police dog. guardians300.com/gvp-203-sukh-g…