When is a man not a person? According to strawman theory, whenever he is facing judgement in court, or having to pay those tedious things called taxes. Strawman theory is a key concept of the sovereign citizen movement which has roots in Posse Comitatus, a US based resistance to federal rule and federal taxes. Like a strawman argument though, the theory itself is based on a false premise. The story goes that governments commit an act of ‘horrific trespass’ against us at birth, because a birth certificate is really a bond, traded on the stock market and somehow connected to a secret treasury account. This can be accessed with the right paperwork and, of course, a fee for same. Links to government bond calculators on social media, advise people to enter their birth certificate number and calculate the value so they can claim their thousands. Strawman advocates also claim that a legal fiction means the name on a birth certificate relates to a legal person, separate from the bodily man or woman. Answering to that name will bind a person in contract with the state and capital letters on legal documentation are cited as proof of this. They advise changing your name, renouncing your birth certificate, and presenting yourself as a man or woman, and then by magic the law will not apply to you. But these pseudolegal claims don’t stand up in court. In Canada, Australia and the UK they have been dismissed by judges as nonsense on multiple occasions.
IS A MAN A PERSON?
IS A MAN A PERSON?
IS A MAN A PERSON?
When is a man not a person? According to strawman theory, whenever he is facing judgement in court, or having to pay those tedious things called taxes. Strawman theory is a key concept of the sovereign citizen movement which has roots in Posse Comitatus, a US based resistance to federal rule and federal taxes. Like a strawman argument though, the theory itself is based on a false premise. The story goes that governments commit an act of ‘horrific trespass’ against us at birth, because a birth certificate is really a bond, traded on the stock market and somehow connected to a secret treasury account. This can be accessed with the right paperwork and, of course, a fee for same. Links to government bond calculators on social media, advise people to enter their birth certificate number and calculate the value so they can claim their thousands. Strawman advocates also claim that a legal fiction means the name on a birth certificate relates to a legal person, separate from the bodily man or woman. Answering to that name will bind a person in contract with the state and capital letters on legal documentation are cited as proof of this. They advise changing your name, renouncing your birth certificate, and presenting yourself as a man or woman, and then by magic the law will not apply to you. But these pseudolegal claims don’t stand up in court. In Canada, Australia and the UK they have been dismissed by judges as nonsense on multiple occasions.