Don’t feel like paying your taxes? Want to start your own posse? Still mad about the gold standard? Looking for an excuse to blame all your problems on the Jews? Have we got a legally dubious ideology for you!
Content notes: This episode contains discussion of fascism and anti-semitic ideology. Some violent incidents such as Ruby Ridge and Waco are mentioned but are not discussed in detail.
Featured image: This billboard is from the UK, but appears to be an outgrowth of the same conspiracy theories that the American sovereign citizen movement coalesced around. (Image source)
An antisemitic political cartoon from all the way back in 1896, already showing some of the conspiracy theories the sovereign citizen movement will pick up about Jews secretly controlling the US economy and deliberately controlling debt. (Image source)
Branch Davidians in pseudo-military uniforms, including their leader David Koresh, under arrest in 1987. These members of the group were arrested after a shootout between two rival prophets at Mount Carmel, the site of the 1993 siege and fire for which the cult is most famous. (Image source)
Sources
- The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right
- A quick guide to sovereign citizens
- The Posse Comitatus Act Explained
- Hate Group Expert Daniel Levitas Discusses Posse Comitatus, Christian Identity Movement and More | Southern Poverty Law Center
- Christian Identity | Southern Poverty Law Center
- Examining Extremism: The Militia Movement
- Militia Movement
- Citizen Militias in the U.S. Are Moving toward More Violent Extremism
- Retrospective: Montana Freemen standoff
- Montana Freemen Trial May Mark End of an Era | Southern Poverty Law Center
- Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy (This is the book Isaac recommended but couldn’t remember the name of at the end of the episode)