thegreatdivide
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chimera wrote on Jun 10 th, 2024 at 4:03pm: thegreatdivide wrote on Jun 9 th, 2024 at 11:57am: 'sovereign citizen' - of which every US citizen can claim the "right" (via the obsolete 2nd ammendment. tgd: '1. Citizens (not sovereign) are subject to laws issued by the sovereign government, including laws re free speech'. You say citizens are sovereign via the government constitution and so are not sovereign by the government. No I don't; what we can see is useful idiots like you reveal the idiocy (and illegality) of the sovereign citizen delusion. (Note the singular, which drives home the point as already noted, but which went straight over your head). But not over head of this Tasmanian independent MP who was invited to a 'sovereign citizens' meeting: (microsoft news) Tasmanian MP Craig Garland speaks at 'sovereign citizens' event, but says he's 'not a subscriber to any alternative reality'Tasmanian independent MP Craig Garland spoke at an event on the weekend that featured multiple 'sovereign citizens' — one of whom plans to create a parallel society — but says he had "no idea" who most of them were.
Mr Garland said he will accept speaking invitations "anywhere, anytime", and that the event was attended by many of his supporters.
The event, in the north-west Tasmanian town of Ulverstone, was called 'Unity in Community', similar to the main slogan of the group 'My Place Australia', which is "putting the unity back in community", and aims to set up a "self-governing" association outside of Australian law.
But event organiser Shayne 'Cush' Allison said he came up with the event name himself, and it was "just a coincidence" that it was shared with My Place. My Place's facilitator, Darren Bergwerf, attended and spoke at the weekend event.
Other speakers included a man who failed to have his Devonport council rates dismissed in court on constitutional grounds, and a speaker who argues the Australian Constitution is invalid and citizens have given "no implied consent".
Sovereign citizens believe Australian laws and institutions are not valid, and subscribe to the conspiracy that a global "cabal" is plotting to remove ordinary citizen's freedoms, but Mr Allison disputed the term "sovereign citizens".
The rhetoric of sovereign citizens has been routinely rejected by Australian courts and described by judges as "gibberish", "incomprehensible" and vexatious, and cases have resulted in financial penalties and potential loss of assets.
Mr Garland said he attended the event on Saturday afternoon, briefly listened to a speech, then gave his own talk on his "political journey" to about 100 attendees.
"I can't comment on who the other speakers were, I just looked around the room and there were quite a few people there who voted for me," he said.
"There were a lot of familiar faces, and there wasn't any radical element there that I could see that much.
"I'll attend anywhere, anytime I'm asked to talk."
Mr Garland said that 'sovereign citizen' concepts weren't raised with him, but there were discussions about "food security".
He said he did not share sovereign citizen views.
"I'm not a subscriber to any alternative reality," Mr Garland said.
When asked if his attendance could give the other speakers an increased audience, and help to legitimise their views, Mr Garland said "we live in a democracy with freedom of speech"**.
Mr Garland was first elected to the House of Assembly earlier this year on the back of strong preference flows in the north-west seat of Braddon, where he lives as a fisherman campaigning against fish farms and the Robbins Island wind farm. **Yes, even blind neanderthal fools like chimera who reject the possibility of an international rules based system are free to spout "gibberish" - as noted by judges in Australian courts who routinely come face to face with these 'sovereign citizen' fools.
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