Take a good long look at yourself in the mirror. Look at your family with objective eyes. Stop and look at the people you talk to at your local hangout, in your congregation’s meetinghouse, and any groups you belong to. And ask. Am I an enemy of the state? Are these people enemies of the state?

Are we?

Maybe. The Feds seem to be concerned that extremists must be watched carefully by banks and credit-card companies. The report is that following on the pandemic panic and the chaos at the Capitol on 6 January 2021 the Treasury Department asked banks to search customer records for clues to “extremism.”

Specifically, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) told banks to look for clues to who might be threats to the FedGov and involved in or planning to follow up on the so-called insurrection in DC that day. Clues? Using words like “Trump” and “MAGA” and buying religious texts (Bibles, Qurans, Book of Mormon, perhaps the Bhagavad Gita?), as well as “suspicious” purchases of transportation services and, of course, guns and ammunition,

This information came as the result of several congresscritturs trying to investigate this action and others by FinCEN. They ask if this is an indication that FinCEN is not respectful of “fundamental civil liberties.”

The answer is certainly obvious to us: FinCEN asked bankers to detect customers whose transactions may reflect “potential active shooters, [and] who may include dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves’).” Are some of them, us PAS? (Potential Active Shooters, in FedGov speak?)

At the same time: it is not a stupid question – stupid being defined as failing to ask an important question if for no other reason than clarifying the situation and defining issues more clearly.

But TPOL’s answer is a resounding YES. FinCEN is not respectful of liberty. And for that matter, there is no federal entity which is. Including Congress itself. And the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch. Although there are some in at least some agencies who may be respectful of – even lovers of – liberty, most are not. And since the FedGov by and large is an enemy of liberty, the question in the headline has a clear answer.

We here at TPOL, lovers of liberty, libertarians (yes, even minarchists) are enemies of the state. Have been and will be. Even after we die, if we have spread the message of freedom, of liberty.

Sadly, we often do not act like the enemies of the state that we are. We go along to get along. We fail to take advantage of daily opportunities to proclaim liberty unto all the land and all the inhabitants thereof, to quote one source of evil, extremist doctrine. (One obviously identified by FinCEN.)

But the choice is ours. How much are we willing to do? To dedicate? To risk?

Centuries ago, Joshua son of Nun stated, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” People didn’t like that. Today, regardless of religious belief, we need to state “As for me and my house, we will NOT serve the state.”