We have gotten some attention from the sovereign citizen community lately, and with it, a recurring question: does New Libertalia fit under that label?
It is a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer.
What Sovereign Citizens Get Right
At its core, the sovereign citizen movement is an expression of self-determination. The desire to opt out of a system you never consented to, to live by your own rules on your own terms, is not a fringe impulse. It is a deeply human one. We understand it better than most. The entire premise of New Libertalia is that people should be able to build communities that reflect their own values, free from coercion. In that sense, we are not so different in what we want.
The frustration that drives people toward sovereign citizen ideas is legitimate. You did not choose the macronation you were born into. You did not sign a contract agreeing to its laws, its taxes, or its politics. Yet you are bound by them regardless. That sense of being governed without genuine consent is real, and dismissing it as paranoia or ignorance does nobody any favors.
Where It Goes Wrong
Here is where we have to be direct with you, because we think you deserve honesty more than validation.
There is no legal method, loophole, or magic phrase that lets you declare yourself sovereign, stop paying taxes, and walk away without consequences. None. Anyone telling you otherwise, and there are many who will, often for a fee, is running a scam. They are not liberators. They are predators who have identified a community of people who feel wronged and are selling them false hope. The people who follow their advice lose their homes, their savings, their businesses, and in many cases their freedom. The macronation does not debate you. It simply waits until you have enough to lose, and then it collects.
It is also worth thinking through what genuine sovereignty would actually mean in practice. If the right was respected, you would no longer be part of the macronation in any way, that cuts both ways. No more grocery stores, no more driving on public roads, no more working as an employee. You would be on your own plot of land, fully isolated, and entirely dependent on yourself for everything. That is the honest version of what people are asking for when they say they want out.
New Libertalia itself operates under the jurisdiction of the macronation it sits in. We do not have the means to resist that, and we will not pretend otherwise. We are building something real and long-term, and that requires us to work within existing legal constraints for now, even when we disagree with them.
So What Can You Actually Do?
If doing nothing is not an option for you, and we respect that, there are real, practical steps you can take to reduce your dependence, increase your self-sufficiency, and build genuine independence over time. None of these will get you into trouble. All of them will make your life more resilient.
Here is a 10-point plan.
1. Become as self-sufficient in food production as possible.
Grow your own vegetables and fruit. The more, the better. Look into keeping animals for meat, milk, and eggs. This directly reduces your spending, reduces your dependence on supply chains and retailers, and in countries with VAT, eliminates the tax you would otherwise pay on that food. Every meal you grow yourself is a meal that required nothing from the system.
2. Become as self-sufficient in water as possible.
This is the one most people overlook. Rainwater collection is a low-cost starting point, even a basic setup can cover garden irrigation and toilet flushing, which alone is a meaningful reduction in municipal water use. If your situation allows it, a well or borehole is a significant step further. At minimum, invest in a quality water filtration system. Clean water is the most fundamental resource there is.
3. Become as self-sufficient in energy as possible.
Solar panels with a home battery are the most accessible option for most people, and the economics have never been better. Hydro and wind are worth considering depending on your plot, but for most people solar is the right call. Once you have solar sorted, look at eliminating natural gas: a heat pump for heating and shifting to electric appliances reduces both your bills and your exposure to energy price volatility. An EV may or may not make sense depending on how rural you are, do the math for your situation.
4. Build a stockpile.
Prepping does not have to mean bunkers and conspiracy theories. Think of it as self-insurance: instead of paying a premium to a company, you set that money aside yourself and spend it on tangible goods you will actually use. Set a fixed amount per month, even if only 10 or 20 dollars, and use it exclusively for building your stockpile. It works exactly like an insurance premium, except what you are building belongs to you. Start small: an extra can of food here, an extra bottle of water there. Over time it adds up. Think about the specific risks in your area: floods, storms, power outages, supply disruptions. Build toward those. A few months of stored essentials fundamentally changes your relationship to crisis.
5. Buy for life.
When you need something: an appliance, a tool, a piece of gear, resist the impulse to buy cheap. Cheap things break, get replaced, and cost you more over time in both money and, if you pay VAT, tax. Research what lasts. There are active communities online dedicated to identifying genuinely durable products. Pay the premium once for something you will never have to replace, rather than paying twice for something you will.
6. Learn to maintain and repair things yourself.
Every time you can fix something without calling someone, you reduce your dependence and keep money out of the system. Basic plumbing, electrical work, mechanical maintenance, carpentry, these are learnable skills, and the internet has made learning them easier than ever. That said, know your limits. There are situations where doing it wrong creates more problems than it solves: a botched electrical job can burn your house down, and if it does, your insurer will want to know who did the work. For anything where safety or insurance liability is a real factor, a professional is the right call. The goal is competence, not recklessness.
7. Reduce debt and avoid new debt.
Debt is one of the most effective tools institutions have for controlling people’s behavior. If you cannot afford something without borrowing, you cannot afford it. The exceptions are a house or land you intend to keep for life, or investments into that property that increase your self-sufficiency. In those cases, the maths can work in your favor. For everything else, if you need credit to buy it, wait or go for a cheaper option that you can afford.
8. Invest part of your savings.
Money sitting idle loses value over time. Part of your savings should be working for you, but not all of it. Always keep a reserve that is immediately accessible. Unless you know what you are doing, do not take risks in the stock market, stick to a globally diversified index fund, an All-World ETF. It is the simplest, most reliable vehicle most people have access to, and it requires no expertise to use well. The stock market has historically returned between 7.5% and 12.5% per year over the long term. It will also fall sometimes, sometimes sharply. The key is not to sell during downturns: the losses only become real when you exit. Invest gradually, consistently, and with a long time horizon. Alongside this, physical gold and silver are worth holding as a hedge: they are currencies that predate every macronation and will outlast them too.
9. Stay informed, critically.
The best preparation for what is coming is knowing what is coming. Open-source intelligence (OSINT), the practice of gathering and analyzing publicly available information, is a skill that puts you ahead of most people. There are communities online where people share and discuss news and developments from around the world, find ones that suit you and participate. You do not need to be glued to the news; checking in on international developments once a day, or whatever frequency works for you, is enough. Constant consumption breeds anxiety more than awareness. That said, these spaces also attract a lot of fear mongering. Do not let others decide what you should be afraid of. Develop your own judgment. Cross-reference. Be skeptical of anything designed to make you panic, and especially skeptical of anything being sold to you alongside the fear. Do not take some random person on Facebook at their word, fact check before you share or act on anything.
10. Build or join a community.
This is the one that multiplies everything else. Individual self-sufficiency has real limits. A small community of people who share values, trade skills, and support each other is exponentially more resilient than any individual acting alone. Find people near you who think similarly. Build relationships. Share knowledge and resources. This is, in fact, the founding logic of New Libertalia, not that any one person can be fully free alone, but that communities of people who choose each other can build something that comes close.
Where We Stand
New Libertalia is not a sovereign citizen movement. We operate within the law, because we have to, and because we are playing a longer game. But we share the underlying conviction: that people should have the right to live by their own values, in communities they have chosen, on their own terms.
If that is what you are looking for, you are in the right place.