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stuboyle
5-16-11, 10:23pm
Did anyone watch 60 minutes last Sunday night? It talked about the "Sovereign Citizen" movement. These people become so extreme in their views its just seems bizarre. What drives people to such extreme views?

Juds
5-16-11, 11:11pm
No TV. What was it about?

stuboyle
5-16-11, 11:21pm
Its a extreme anti-government group.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/15/60minutes/main20062666.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

redfox
5-17-11, 1:04am
Did anyone watch 60 minutes last Sunday night? It talked about the "Sovereign Citizen" movement. These people become so extreme in their views its just seems bizarre. What drives people to such extreme views?

IMHO, fear.

Madsen
5-17-11, 1:57am
> What drives people to such extreme views?

Some might say the same about us, yes?


I'd be careful to judge based solely on a 60 Minutes report.

CathyA
5-17-11, 7:20am
Was that the report, where the father and son shot and killed 2 policemen during a traffic stop?

stuboyle
5-17-11, 8:11am
Was that the report, where the father and son shot and killed 2 policemen during a traffic stop?

yes.

peggy
5-17-11, 8:28am
I saw that. What surprised me was the number of members they said were here. something like 300,000. Wow! They appeared to me to be Libertarians gone amok! (now don't flame me. I said gone amok, but libertarian seems to be the closest to the line here)
Madsen, no jumping to conclusions here. They interviewed the leader of the group, or one of the leaders. His own words were quite scary.

Gregg
5-17-11, 9:46am
The fact that the segment was sponsored by Viagra is... ironic.

Seriously though, any movement has it's share of extremists and something like this plays straight at people who are inclined to paranoia anyway. The current economy has contributed to the loss of lots of jobs, lots of homes. It is pretty natural for someone in that position to feel hopeless, frustrated or even angry. The government is a very handy scapegoat for some of those folks, especially when there are a lot of us in the mainstream that also feel the government has expanded beyond constitutional limits. It's easy to find validation and with the internet being what it is I'm guessing it's easy to fall farther and farther into an ideology like this. People without hope have nothing to lose. That's what makes this group, and all the others like it, scary.

stuboyle
5-17-11, 12:56pm
Gregg,

What you said makes sense. 60 minutes focused on the extremists of the extremists, though those are the ones which can kill you.

Gregg
5-19-11, 7:47pm
While I can't argue the truth in your statement stuboyle, the odds are also worth mentioning. The odds so far of being killed by a sovereign citizen are what? (Without bothering to go to the lowest common denominator.) 25 or maybe 50 in 310,000,000? Should we just brush them under the carpet? No, of course not. But compared to second hand smoke or a texting teen driver they aren't much of a threat. They are a bunch of paranoid loonies. We should not allow ourselves to become paranoid worrying about them. We have MUCH bigger fish to fry.

Xmac
5-19-11, 9:48pm
They are a bunch of paranoid loonies.

That's a broad brush, Gregg.

I think Madsen made an excellent point. The media routinely takes the mundane or unusual and makes it into a dramatic, hyped up embellishment aimed at turning a profit and demonizing or marginalizing certain groups, especially those that challenge government. This is why I don't watch T.V., it is manufactured consent (or dissent as the case may be).

Gregg
5-20-11, 3:26pm
You're right Xmac, too broad. What I should have said is that there are paranoid loonies in their ranks that, like the fringe of almost any group, are the ones who get the most press. Thanks for catching me on that (and my apology to any rational, civil Sovereign Citizens here).

Xmac
5-23-11, 10:40pm
You're right Xmac, too broad. What I should have said is that there are paranoid loonies in their ranks that, like the fringe of almost any group, are the ones who get the most press. Thanks for catching me on that (and my apology to any rational, civil Sovereign Citizens here).

Your level of civility and integrity is an admirable example, maybe even unparalleled on these boards.

Tiam
5-23-11, 11:42pm
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366128n&tag=mncol;lst;1

Xmac
5-25-11, 4:53pm
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366128n&tag=mncol;lst;1

The people portrayed in the above segment are to the Sovereign Movement as what the Black Panthers of the sixties were to the Non-violent movement of Martin Luther King.