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Comment by AnimalMuppet | Hacker News Reader

And they're right. They never (formally, explicitly) consented to the rules. But therefore... what?

They have three options. One, they can choose to live and operate under those rules. Two, they can work within the system to change the rules. Or three, they can go somewhere that has rules more to their liking. This isn't a prison; they can leave any time they choose. One could even argue that by staying in the country, they are (informally, implicitly) consenting to be governed by its rules.

But instead, they try a fourth alternative: Stay, but pretend that the rules don't apply to them because of laughably bogus legal theories. That doesn't work, no matter how many new legal theories they try, and no matter how much bogus logic and philosophizing they throw at it.

We've got a lot of non-sov-cit people who don't consent to the rules. We call them "criminals".

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> Or three, they can go somewhere that has rules more to their liking. This isn't a prison; they can leave any time they choose.

That's an illusion of choice, though. There isn't any unclaimed, habitable land anymore. If your views don't align with any of the 195 existing countries, then this isn't actually an option. It's just 1 or 2, but in a different location.

You can't be an anarchist, ever. There's nowhere to do it. If you want to live somewhere that pledges itself as a Christian theocracy, you better hope you're Catholic. Ditto for most religions, really. Or if you want to live in a sovereign entity with the population of a small town.

The options are really just "suck it up" or "spend your whole life trying to change it". I'm genuinely curious what the sovereign citizens would do if they were allowed to secede any land they own. It's not for me, but I am curious whether they'd actually leave or if they just don't want to follow the rules.

While your three options are the three practical options, one should note that it's not trivial to move to whatever country you might want, and not just because of costs.

Getting a work permit in another country is usually pretty hard, for instance.

Still, even with that, I think we (as a society/civilisation) need people like that, challenging the system in all sorts of ways. And not everyone not obeying the rules is a "criminal" — none of the civil offenses qualify, for instance, even in the legal sense.

Of course, some of those "challenges", especially most of those criminal ones, should be dealt with proper "retaliation" (prison sentences, large penalties...) from the society so it's obvious which "challenges" are not welcome. But let's not forget that many of the things we take for granted today have been criminal in the not so distant past.

> While your three options are the three practical options, one should note that it's not trivial to move to whatever country you might want, and not just because of costs.

It's also not trivial (Next to impossible, actually) to survive alone, completely independent of society.

If you want the benefits of society, you have to abide by its rules.

And how do we keep government employees honest when the courts uphold government immunity? In the present topic of Michigan town extortion, how will the government employees be financially and criminally punished?

By engaging in government. You know, voting, protesting, primaries, lobbying, running for office, propagandizing, working with organizations who do all those things, etc.

Oh, I am not disagreeing with that (though I am sure it is possible in a remote area without roads or any other society-provided infrastructure).

I still think it's good that all norms are being challenged even if it's often times hypocritical or selfish.

A variety of protests, I'm sure, would look askance at much of this comment.

The sovereign citizen material, though, really does leave the impression that there must be something underlying the absurdity.

Mental illness? It generally comes across as the type of homegrown rant material you'd find stapled to a telephone pole.

See, a protest - even civil disobedience - is working within the system to change the rules. Sovereign citizen stuff? Not so much.

Working within the system isn’t always the answer. Was the Boston Tea Party “working within the system”?

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