Sovereign Citizenship, the Manosphere, Why are They Appealing to Young Men?

Former sovereign citizen Brodie Finnegan Forbes understands the appeal, and the vital social moral they ignore.

It was during the COVID pandemic when Brodie’s nine-year dream of becoming a recording artist was crushed that the sovereign citizen ideology found him.

“[The movement] represented power,” Brode told Hope Afternoons.

“It was getting control back over my own life [and] the more I leant into it, the deeper and deeper I got.”

At the heart of being a sovereign citizen is the idea that you are above the laws governing everyday citizens. They believe the government is an illegitimate institution designed to suppress your true human identity, and that once you crack the code of their so called deception money assigned to you at birth will be released and you’ll be free forever.

“Offering people money, power and a sense of belonging at a time of disconnection was appealing. I was promised community,” Brode said.

The ability to have somewhere to belong is a huge drawcard for young men, but flaws in that community are why Brodie escaped the sovereign citizen compound he was living on and speaks up to prevent others joining.

“There was a lot of bullying,” Brode said.

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“A lot of just abusive behaviour: psychological, emotional, physical. I’d see it happen to others and it happened to me.

“Some of the people in the movement were talking about killing cops [and] I did not want to be a part of that. As soon as I heard of that I realised this has gone way too far.”

Brodie’s escape was a massive risk – and to this day there are people continuing to threaten him for speaking out – and it was confronting the fact that the very police he’d dismissed were his only source of protection that became a significant turning point for him.

“I went to them because I had no choice.”

“They all knew who I was because I was already in the cells with them, arguing in the months previous.

“They could have said to me, ‘Go away, you’re a sovereign citizen, we don’t want to deal with you’, but at a time of desperation and need the police actually welcomed me in and said, ‘Hey, yeah, we’ll help you’.

“That was a real big turning point because suddenly I started to realise that everyone outside of the movement were just human beings like me, who were trying to figure it out, who were trying to do their best.”

The forgiveness Brodie felt from the police is a virtue he now sees as vital for human development and social cohesion.

“For us to grow as a species, and individually, we need to forgive,” Brodie said.

“We need to really learn how to be gentle with each other and also understanding of each other.

“Young men are feeling unseen and unheard and misunderstood and then you have people who are coming to them and are saying, ‘Well, here’s your answer’, and it’s the wrong answer. They’re being sold a lie.

“[Young men] really just need to be reminded that they are valuable just as human beings. They do belong in society. They’re not outcast.”

Brodie Finnegan Forbes is a Lifeline volunteer and author of Chasing Shadows, the story of how he lived in, and got out of, the sovereign citizen movement.

Feature image: Canva Pro