Are “sovereign citizens” a thing anymore? I’m not sure. But if you’ve heard of this phrase, then it was probably in the context of farcical internet videos featuring grown adults mutually harassing one another until the annoying one (the sovereign citizen) loses to the one with a gun (the cop).

Although it’s not really my style, I understand that there’s no small amount of schadenfreude to be derived from such videos. Sovereign citizens are undoubtedly goons, and watching goons get their goonuppance is virtually a genre in its own right.

But for a certain segment of the onlooking population — the politically/ideologically‐inclined — the sovereign citizen (henceforth sov‐cit) represents more than just the object of their schadenfreude. The citizen is also the target of ideological ridicule.