Sovereign Citizen Ideology Increasingly Seeping into QAnon

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Mark Pitcavage
@egavactip
Two extreme movements that get more extreme together: welcome to the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of extremism. A good piece by my colleague @ktmcc5 and worth a read.

"Sovereign Citizen Ideology Increasingly Seeping into QAnon"

adl.org
Sovereign Citizen Ideology Increasingly Seeping into QAnon
More than a year after Q’s final post and the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., a small but growing number of QAnon adherents are openly embracing the beliefs of the...
6:07 PM · Jan 19, 2022

https://www.adl.org/blog/sovereign-citizen-ideology-increasingly-seeping-into-qanon

*snip*

The sovereign citizen movement is a 50-year-old anti-government movement whose adherents believe in a conspiracy theory that in the 19th century, a shadowy group of conspirators began infiltrating the original, lawful government and subverted it into an illegitimate and tyrannical de facto government that’s been using secret contracts to enslave all Americans. Sovereigns claim that people can in effect “divorce” themselves from this illegitimate government, which thereafter has no jurisdiction or authority over them. Sovereign citizen gurus use pseudolegal language to teach followers their theories and tactics. The movement has become known for its “paper terrorism” harassing tactics, for scams and frauds, and for violence ranging from armed standoffs to shootouts to acts of terrorism.

The conspiratorial anti-government views of the sovereign citizen movement mesh well with QAnon followers’ belief that the current Biden administration is illegitimate. One person who has actively merged these views is Bobby Lawrence, a sovereign citizen guru based in Pennsylvania who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2018. Over the course of 2021, he has forged close ties with QAnon influencers, especially conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel and the husband-and-wife couple Allen and Francine Fosdick, hosts of the QAnon show, Up Front in the Prophetic.

Lawrence teaches sovereignty with a QAnon bent, urging his followers to become “American State Nationals” before Trump is reinstated as president. “American State National” is one of many terms that sovereign citizens use to distinguish themselves from citizens under the jurisdiction of the illegitimate, de facto government. “Trump is working on the ‘Fall of the Cabal’ which will allow our Constitutional Republic to Rise again, however the newly partially restored Constitutional Republic will need We The People of restored status via ‘The Great Awakening’ to fill and function in the newly partially restored Constitutional Republic,” Lawrence posted to Telegram in October 2021. “This will only be accomplished via We The People reclaiming our Birthright by becoming American State Nationals... As the number of American State Nationals and one of the People increases, so will the Function of the [sic] our Constitutional Republic. It will start at the absolute local level (you and your neighbors) and then grow and grow and grow.”

Ann Vandersteel, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who has championed QAnon and the widely debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, began working with Bobby Lawrence to “correct” her citizenship status in July 2021. Sovereign citizens believe that by filing a series of pseudolegal documents, one can opt out of the so-called “Fourteenth Amendment citizenship” that the government created to control them and “regain” their sovereign status, becoming immune to the laws and authority of the illegitimate federal government. On January 9, Vandersteel announced on Telegram to her 38,000 followers that she had completed the process and had officially become an “American State National.” Vandersteel has promoted Lawrence’s work repeatedly throughout the latter half of 2021, and Lawrence appeared on her show, SteelTruth, in June and July 2021, where he discussed how to become an American State National.

*snip*

[alwaysinasnit]

1. AFAIC, since these people don't recognize that the laws of this country apply to them, they are here

illegally and should be deported. About 12 nautical miles off any of our coasts puts them in international waters, and for good measure, I would be happy to provide a week's ration of MRE's and a case of bottled water.

[vercetti2021]

2. I got a better idea

Let's drop them here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island

[alwaysinasnit]

3. I'm good with that, thanks!

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. They should also be denied things like welfare, income tax refunds, student loans, and everything

else federal, state, and local governments provide. They should not be allowed to drive on public roads funded by taxes.

But they are only sovereign when they break a law. Then they claim this clap-trap.

There is no such thing as "The United House of Marty Moron." Don't claim to be an American citizen. Do what Peter Griffin did and claim your property as the "Kingdom of Petoria."

[alwaysinasnit]

6. +1000

[AZLD4Candidate]

5. I have issue with this tweet. What an insult to a perfectly good Peanut Butter Cup!